Growing Up Is Hard To Do, Letting Go Is Harder
by Cuppa Char
Summary: After the events of 'Crayon's...' both Mike and Harvey realise growing up is hard to do, but letting go is harder. A tough case, a dip into the emotional minefield of adolescence and a distant Harvey is not helping either. Crayons' sequel: This is what he wanted - the fake son he never knew he needed until now.
1. Chapter 1

Growing Up Is Hard To Do (Letting Go Is Harder)

Summary: After the events of 'Crayon's...' both Mike and Harvey realise growing up is hard to do, but letting go is harder. A tough case, a dip into the emotional minefield of adolescence and a distant Harvey is not helping either.

Rating: T

Warning: Mike swears a bit more than he did in Crayon's (as in at all).

A/N: This is a sequel to phoenixoncloudnine's 'Crayon's For The Associate, Sir...'. I was greatly honoured when asked to do this. It wont be as long as Crayon's and probably not as good or epic, but I still hope you all enjoy it (I also live in hope that there may be some au-one shots of kid!Mike&fake-dad!Harvey ;D ).

I am also aware that Harvey, initially in this, may come across as being in a different head space, in regards to his and Mike's interactions, as he was at the end of 'Crayon's...'. This is intentional, but only temporary and will be addressed in an upcoming chapter.

Disclaimer: Suits does not belong to me. No infringement intended.

_It is the process of transition from childhood to adulthood with an accelerated physical, mental, biochemical, social and emotional development._

_Viewed as a socio-cultural phenomenon adolescence is a period in one's life when society ceases to regard him/her as a child but does not yet accord him/her full adult status, role or function_

**Vijayeta Priyadarshini, Physical Problems of Adolescence, **

It's been nearly two months since he had changed back. The transitional period after had been... odd, to say the least. As much as he hated to admit it at the time, he had still needed nap-time and the occasional time-out. He knew Harvey would never utter any of the embarrassing and totally mortifying late night freak-out calls for the monsters under the bed or sleepy _'read me...' _requests.

Even more mortifying, was the effect Harvey's authoritative commanding voice had on him – sure, Mike had always listened, processed and eventually done what Harvey had requested, but not without questions, alternatives and barbed banter – but, Harvey had a way of altering his voice, giving him a _look _ and he'd clamp his mouth shut, roll his eyes and _comply _with hardly any of the latter. He was sure, at times (but only when too tired to argue) that Harvey could talk him into a time-out for no reason at all.

Thankfully, he hasn't had one of those for quite a few weeks. Maybe, because, he'd seen Harvey less and less over that period of time. He knew it wasn't Harvey's fault – the firm had taken on a high-flying client who had enough money to buy himself into trouble several times over and it was taking not only Harvey, but Louis and Jessica too, to get him out of it.

Harvey had, naturally, dumped all his other files and irrelevant paperwork on Mike's desk (but only after Mike had assured him he was okay to help, mistakenly believing Harvey wanted him on the case with him). He'd then kindly told him to just focus on proofing all his files and then, much to Mike's chagrin, _'Do some administrative work. The paperwork is on Donna's desk' _because Donna was scuttling after Harvey, as she too had been caught up in someone else's high end drama. That was unfair, he knew. Donna was kick ass and she didn't scuttle (and if Harvey had to have said kick ass and probably axe wielding assistant with him, then the shit must have hit the fan), but the whole situation was rapidly pissing him off. And lately? It really didn't take a lot to piss him off.

He sighed loudly and dropped heavily into his seat at his cubicle, letting the files fall from his grasp and slap against his desk. He rubbed at his elbows, feeling the familiar ache creep into the joints and behind his knees. He'd been having these, along with a tightness running down his neck and across his shoulders for quite a few weeks now. It had warranted a visit, courtesy of Harvey's ever vigilant insistence to the crack-pot professor who had initiated all of this in the first place.

"Fuck," Mike muttered, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. _Now would be a good time to insist on nap-time, Harvey._

"Not from your usual vocabulary range, Ross." He heard someone observe from behind.

Lifting his head, Mike saw Gregory leaning over his cubicle wall, an amused smirk on his face.

"Whatever," Mike muttered again, rubbing at his face.

"What's the matter?" Gregory asked. "Harvey and Donna playing with the big boys?"

"I'm busy," Mike said, which was true, he just had yet to start on the files yet. "Is there something you wanted?"

"Is it true?" Gregory asked, leaning over the wall further and blowing a teasing grin at him. "Does Harvey still make you take nap-time?"

Mike gritted his teeth.

"Do you want him to?"

He wanted to say

_yes, I want a fucking nap-time_

_yes, I want to stamp my foot and throw a tantrum until Harvey takes heed and lets him head across town to join their endless meetings_

_yes, he freaking misses the hugs (_because Harvey's too busy for any tactile reassurances and Mike's too big to climb into his lap) _and he's absolutely mortified for even thinking about it._

Mike knew he was falling right into the hole Gregory wanted him in, but he couldn't help it, and suddenly his middle finger was raising by it's own accord. He flicked it over his shoulder in his fellow associate's direction.

He could practically feel the energy from Gregory's pleasantly triumphant grin wash over him.

"Real mature, Ross."

It went silent after that and a quick glance over his shoulder revealed that Gregory had drifted away to annoy someone else. He dropped his head back down into his hands and stared in numb reservation down at the unopened files.

"_Damn you and your fucking hormones."_

It started with an ache, pulling down the calf's of his legs and winding around his muscles. His arm's had been hurting too, just the weight of the endless files Louis had sent him after, in the too far away records room, had been enough to make him want to tiredly sigh and crawl into the crevice under his desk. He swore his joints had joined in the party too, but according to many, that's all in his head. They couldn't deny the stiffness to his shoulder's and their travels across the nape of his neck. Myth or not, none of what had occurred would have been explicable and until today he was still none the wiser at how it had actually happened.

The tiredness was another thing all together. Mike had always had the ability, before his trip into munchkin land, to work through the night and survive, admittedly, on a unhealthy amount of Red bull. It didn't matter how many times Harvey insisted on nap-time, he was always bone tired and Harvey had found him dozing off over case files on at least a couple of occasions. There was also some rapidly labile mood changes, taking both of them by surprise, and no amount of naps or time out's would have have saved them from the wraith that came with it.

After a few puzzling days, Harvey had dragged him back to where it all started...

…."Mr Specter," Anna Green greeted them with a smile before giving Mike a measuring look. "I see you brought your associate back in one piece."

Harvey smiled thinly in response.

"I hope it was an enlightening experience for you both."

"Yes," Harvey responded, words genuine. He didn't want to give her the pleasure or satisfaction, but he could not deny himself or Mike that truth. "I guess you could say that."

Anna smiled again and despite Harvey not regretting the experience that they had shared, it groused him to see she had no qualms or ethical dilemma over the emotional upheaval she had put them through, especially for Mike. To let him experience something so emotionally buried (_'I miss my dad' Mike wailed, burying his face into Harvey's neck and sobbing into his shirt._) and to then pull it away without a grasp of the consequences was truly cruel. Although, Anna Green, hadn't known about these deeply in-grained issues at the time.

"Hello Mike."

Mike hadn't responded to the doctor's greeting. He seemed to have pulled back, withdrawn into some available space behind Harvey. Politely sullen. "Mike," Harvey prompted.

"Hey." It came out in a more of a grunt.

Harvey glanced back, looking at him for a second before turning to face Anna again. He didn't miss the way she was studying Mike with an earnest look of interest. It unnerved him and he coughed to catch her attention again.

"Right, take a seat," she said once he had caught her eye, waving to the two chairs in front of her desk. "Tell me, any unusual side effects?"

"Define unusual," Mike said with a raised eyebrow as he slunk into the chair. He's managed to burrow himself into his jacket, collar flipped up. Harvey stared at Mike for a second longer than he intended, something pulling at a pushed away thought at the back of the head. But he dismissed it with a shake of the head.

"Behave," Harvey muttered. He gave the kid a small, gentle smack to the back of the head which earned him a raised head and glower in response.

"I don't want to put things in your mouth," Anna smiled. He doesn't understand why she is so damn happy with the kid's crankiness. The last time, his associate had her eating out of his hand, all understanding sympathy and puppy dog tails. "Go on."

Mike has gone silent again, picking at the sleeve of his jacket and pulling at a loose thread and Harvey wants nothing more than to flick the hand away. He's ruining a good jacket, after all.

It became clear that Mike wasn't going to respond when he distractedly looked away, eyes unfocused but a look of confused anger across his face – obvious, he thinks, only to himself.

"Well, we haven't had to use any man-size pull-ups," Harvey joked, trying to break the stilled silence.

Mike's face flushed red and the muscles in his jaw clearly tensed and grind together.

Harvey instantly regretted it. He's committed some unforgivable sin of utter betrayal in Mike's eyes and his attempt at breaking the ice appeared to have come across as looking like an uncool father making an even more uncool joke with complete embarrasement as the result.

"At toddler stage," Anna said, clearly picking up on the tension and trying to smooth it down. "It's quite normal."

Mike shrugged in response and turned his glower from before in her direction before shifting his gaze over her shoulder.

"Okay, seeing as Mike's too busy to talk now," Harvey said, glancing uncomfortably between the two. "I'll just say what he's mentioned to me and what I've noticed."

Anna nodded eagerly, picking a pen up, hand hovering over a note-pad.

After listing everything and earning another glare from the kid for Harvey calling him on his pissy attitude, Anna dropped her pen and nodded vigorously.

"Just as I thought."

"Hmm, excuse me?" Harvey said, momentary distracted by Mike's increasing physical agitation. He lifted his hand and placed it against the back of Mike's arm, squeezing gently and murmuring his reassurance that they will leave soon. "Care to explain your epiphany?"

"Some of our test subjects have shown an interesting phase..." Anna conceded, eyes bright (Harvey wondered if it was less about a scientific discovery and more about her own personal loss).

The words Interesting and Phase did nothing to calm his fraying nerves.

"A phase?"

He felt Mike move under his arm and a quick glance revealed he had turned his full attention back to the doctor.

"... An interim, if you will," Anna continued, eyes darting between them, face flushed with an unknown knowledge. "It's only to be expected really."

She stared at their blank faces as if it was positively obvious and Harvey pushed at the niggling thought again, opting for ignorance because he wasn't entirely sure he could actually deal with that. The only sign that Mike had any inkling of anything was the physical tension building under Harvey's hand.

"Mike went from toddler to adult within a very short period. He skipped a whole stage. A right of passage." Anna said, her eyes softened and moistened before she blinked them away. Any other day, without brief instantaneous acid trips into child-hood and the impending unknown territory that Harvey was now sure to follow, Mike would have reached across the desk and taken her hand in his. "Although, physically, Mike is an adult, he is affectively going through... shall we call it adolescence?"

Yes, why not, Harvey thought dryly, considering that's what the hell it was.

Anna continued, seemingly unaware of the stony silence emanating from both Harvey and Mike. "Expect the normal stages of that... Mike's experiencing a rush of hormones at the moment, due to the rapid transition, so don't be surprised for some wildly fluctuating mood swings and he'll probably try and pull away from you, you know... in a rebellious stand to be independent again. In Mike's case, that might not be a bad thing, as long as it's not too wild. I guess you might want to consider cutting the strings sooner rather than later, dad."

Harvey felt his breath catch painfully in his throat. Mike turned rigid against his hand. Anna Green doesn't know the significance of her passing words, thrown in jest. She hasn't a clue.

"And the pains?" Harvey asked, trying to pull all three away from the stormy waters and repressed emotions.

"Quite simply, growing pains. They'll pass soon enough."

"I thought that was a myth?"

"'Growing pains is a harmless condition that affects ten to twenty per cent of growing children. Approximately one third of children with growing pains also experience other forms of recurrent pain, such as headaches or abdominal pain'. Copyright Sally S. Harris M.D, speciality Sports Medicine." Mike quoted blankly. Harvey was impressed.

"Hyperthymesia, interesting..." Anna said, confusion marring her face and jotting something down in her note pad."

"Not really," Harvey said, rolling his eyes. "He was like that before."

"Oh," she said, appearing appeased that her theory hadn't been quashed by her subject's freakish mind. Mike had fallen silent again, seemingly bored. Anna continued with her explanation as though he had never spoken. "They are very real. Although most people mistakenly believe it's the bone growing. It's actually the muscle being stretched or being pulled unevenly. It's usually most common in the legs, but we've gone from toddler to adult in 60, so it's not odd that he's experiencing it in other areas too."

Harvey doesn't like the use of 'we'... it angers him that she's trying to replant herself into their journey. Apart from her initiation, against their will, she would never know, no matter what she was trying to recapture into her life, what it had meant for both he and Mike. It was unique and touching, wrong on so many levels, yet still, so very right. And she still didn't have a clue. What she had put Mike through. What she had taken away.

"In some cases, although not very common, the pain can manifest itself as headaches. In Mike's case, due to the unusual way it has progressed, I would expect to see him develop some..."

She continued to talk, about intensities and migraines, when Harvey heard a small huffed out voice beside him.

"Fuck you."

"Michael!" Harvey snapped automatically, although he somewhat agreed with the sentiment. "Apologise to Dr Green, right now."

Mike's mouth closed immediately, a look of distaste on his lips, as though he didn't like the taste of his own words.

"It's okay, really..." Anna said dismissively. She looked as though she had slowly realised something more troubling was occurring than just the cusp of angst-filled adolescence.

Mike turned and looked at Harvey, the brief fluttering of betrayal flooding across his face and a threat of tears as his eyes pricked and blinked furiously. Harvey gulped and swallowed hard, fighting hard not to show any emotion. He kept his hand firmly secured around the kid's arm.

"... Sorry..." Mike finally said, not sounding sorry at all, but Harvey didn't have it in him to make the kid sound sincere and really, he didn't care for it.

"Go wait outside," Harvey said, leaning in close, so the words were ushered softly between them. He squeezed gently at the elbow

Mike turned and glanced at him. His eyes still looked angry but confusion was rapidly replacing it.

"Fine!" Mike muttered. He stood abruptly and stomped a few feet out of the office. Harvey watched him as he went.

Naturally, there was a door slammed.

"It's okay, really." Anna said to him.

"No, it's not," Harvey said in a low voice that he usually reserved for nervy witnesses and inferior opponents. He turned and stared at her full on."If I had my way, I would sue your ass, but Jessica foolishly thinks you're still good for the firm. The only reason I'm not tipping the authorities anonymously for your complete disregard for free-choice, humane, ethical and LEGALATIES OF your crazy shit, is because I can't exactly take my associate to a regular doctor, can I? How would that go? _'Some crazy scientist turned a grown man into a child and now he's reliving his teens again. Please cut him open and see for yourself_."

Anna's remained silent through his quietly controlled rant – his voice effortlessly cool – face pale, hands ringing nervously in her lap.

"Mr Specter..." she tried.

Harvey stood abruptly and leant across her desk, leaving enough space between them to be non-threatening and smiled at her.

"If Mike has so much as one hair out of place after all of this settles down, I will completely destroy you."

Harvey knew he was only being halfway fair. Anna Green was clearly a troubled woman whose misguided actions were a result of a need lost, and unable to regain it, had channelled her brilliant mind and said need into dangerous waters. Despite this, Harvey remained full of building anger, a reluctance to open himself to the implications or reasoning behind it. What scared him, though, was how he hadn't questioned it.

Harvey straightened, tweaked his tie and suit jacket and bid Dr Anna Green goodbye...

The headaches, as predicted, came a week later (but a whole week before the firm – and Harvey – were consumed with another man's greed and need for trouble.)

It's gone 6.30 and he's still nowhere finished. He stared down numbly at the words that assaulted his pulsating eyes. They felt ready to pop from eye sockets and he rubbed at them tiredly.

Most of the other associates had left, but for some unknown reason, both Gregory and Kyle remained. They're huddled near Gregory's cubicle, Kyle leaning lazily against the cubicle wall. He said something that makes Gregory break into a ridiculous guffaw of laughter and caused Mike to swallow down a gurgled S.O.S.

He looked back down at the file with useless and uncooperative eyes as Kyle snickered and then launched into some conspicuous tail.

"What are you still doing here?"

Startled, Mike flinched with pain and looked up to find Harvey standing between the cubicles. He wasn't looking at him, though, and Mike blinked in confusion, nausea playing with tonsils at the back of the throat. It caused him to clamp his teeth down in fear of the repercussions.

"Just finishing a few things, Sir..." Gregory said nervously. He straightened and glanced at Kyle who had the nerve to actually smile.

"Really?" Harvey said, with a smirk that was nowhere near amused. "Because it looks like your playing chatty cathy."

"Right..." Gregory said, who made an aborted move towards his cubicle before stopping, hands fluttering nervously.

If Mike hadn't been in so much pain, he would have snorted at the obvious fear radiating off his fellow associate. Harvey hadn't even been trying.

"That's your cue to leave, unless you want me to tell Louis how your not working on your not-something." Harvey said. Mike watches as both Kyle and Gregory both stare at Harvey for a confused second. Harvey flicked his head towards the door. "Leave."

Once Kyle and Gregory had gone, Harvey turned his attention back to Mike.

"Hey."

"Hey," Mike responded, flicking his gaze back towards his desk.

"Headache, huh?" Harvey asked.

Mike managed a 'Hmm' in confirmation. He sighed loudly and swiped a hand across his face. When he let go, the paperwork was still there and he stared dumbly down at it.

"Go home, Mike." Harvey instructed him quietly. He was just about to shake his head, when Harvey reached down around him, pulling the files out from under Mike's elbows. Mike shifted his eyes and continued to stare dumbly at Harvey instead. "I got this."

"But..." Mike started to say.

"If anyone hears about this," Harvey warned as he started to flip through one of the files. "I'll know where it came from. Get your backside out of here before I change my mind."

Mike felt his head nod against his own will, head bobbing away, a small smile playing at his lips. Body on autopilot, he sluggishly picked up his bag and turned his monitor off.

"Ray's outside. Use him," Harvey said quietly and firmly, not once lifting his head from the file. Words enough to implore him into obeying. "I'm not scraping you off the pavement."

"Uh.. thanks, Harvey," Mike said, turning to leave before stopping suddenly. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

He doesn't know why it came out as a question. Of course he'd see him tomorrow. He sees him everyday, more often than not he ends up in his office for some reason or another. Harvey lifted his head then and frowned at him before nodding. "Of course... see you tomorrow, go before you wilt any further."

Mike smiled tiredly at him and left Harvey rifling through the file. It was unknown to both of them at the time, that Harvey was holding the file that would in the weeks to come, monopolise Harvey's time and send Mike on an epic meltdown.

tbc

AN2: Mike's quote from Palo Alto Medical Foundation

/preeteen/parents/growingpains. html

Introductory quote from

/teenagers-articles/physical-problems-of-adolescents-3773829. Html

_The song 'Cats in the Cradle' is my unofficial song for 'Crayon's..' and how I feel about this... Any version will do, but I prefer Harry Chapin or Ugly Kid Joe._


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry for the delay! So many things to write, so little time. Lyrics (extracts only) featured: Ships In The Night by Matt Kearney

Standard disclaimers apply

Warning: Mike increases his swearing towards the end of the chapter. I apologise in advance. It is meant to be out of character.

**Chapter 2**

_Like ships in the night_

_You keep passing me by_

_We're just wasting time_

_Trying to prove who's right_

_And if it all goes crashing in the sea_

_If it's just you and me_

_Trying to find the light _

Harvey excused himself as the meeting was being wrapped up and stepped outside of the conference room. He took a few steps around the corner, out of sight and warily leant against the wall, hand pinching at tired eyes.

Harvey had never felt so exhausted by anyone's misadventures before (not even in his and Mike's whirlwind trip through child-hood) then he is with a one James Jacob Meade III. In the space of three weeks – approximately two weeks after his father had died and left his high-flying, and not to mention the off the chart financial status, corporate business – he had been on a cocaine binge with a not-so high flying prostitute, been blackmailed by the very same prostitute and managed to threaten the entire financial structure of J.J. Meade by some very ill advised business decisions of the shady, yet obviously ignorant, kind. Harvey was sure that there would be more to come, but if these were the ones that were deemed fixable, he hated to think what the others would be like.

He took a second to gather himself and palmed the phone in his hand. He felt pretty bad for dumping Mike at the office. He hadn't even left Donna to keep him out of trouble. A part of him felt he should have taken him along with him – because even with labile teen moods and a whole lot of pouting Mike was still able to pick up on the smallest details, loop-holes and genius out-there curve balls. But, on the other hand, although JJ Meade seemed to have a care-free attitude and went through most things with a ravish greed and total disregard for any of the consequences, he had affectively just been through a devastating lost, one that Harvey suspected was fuelling his actions. He wasn't sure Mike could handle it and in his current 'phase' (and the fact the recent change had brought back some of those feelings of loss) he didn't think it was a good idea that they mixed.

Mike had been given strict instructions, until Harvey or Donna were back, to leave work by 8pm each day. He knew, of course, that it had fell on deaf ears

Mike picked up on the second ring.

"Hey, kid."

"Harvey?"

He doesn't know why the kid sounded so surprised.

"Yeah – who were you expecting? Louis?"

He could practically hear the shudder down the phone.

"I just... wasn't expecting to hear from you so late..." his voice trailed off and before Harvey could interrupt him, he continued with a rush, voice sounding flushed, excited and worried all at once. "What's the matter? Do you need something? Should I come down?"

"Hold your horses," Harvey managed to get in. He remained leaning against the wall and pushed his free hand through his hair, ignoring the fact that it probably now looked ruffled and out of place. "I'm fine, Mike. I was just checking in. I realised we hadn't spoken in a day or so."

"Oh." There's was an unmistakable sound of disappointment on the other end of the line.

"Where are you?" Harvey asked him, suspicion telling him he was definitely not at home.

"What?" is the offered reply before a vague - "Around."

Harvey sighed again. He was already dead on his feet, he really didn't need this, admittedly minor, non-ball playing from the kid too.

"You're still at work aren't you?"

Harvey can hear the audible pause.

He didn't bait him and just hoped he picked up on the stony silence instead.

"... yes," Mike finally admitted.

"It's gone 10:00, Mike," Harvey admonished him, firming his voice. It was the voice he used that always,without a doubt, resulted in Mike snapping to attention and following him to wherever he told him to go. "Go home. I don't need you ratty tomorrow."

"What?" Mike said stupidly, choking on something. Harvey presumed it was coffee. That was something else that they needed to talk about. The kid seriously drank too much caffeine when he obviously needed sleep.

"You need at least eight and half hours sleep." _(He read it somewhere.)_

"Harvey-"

"I know you're not really a teenager." _(But you might as well be)._

"Harv-"

"But until things are more normal-" _(when you can actually look after yourself. When you don't need me any more. When you-)._

"Harvey!" Mike exclaimed, exasperated. "Back up a minute, will you."

"What?" Harvey said, pausing in his thoughts, confused at himself at what he had actually – inwardly – meant.

"_YOU _don't want me ratty in the morning?" Mike asked again.

"Yesss," Harvey said more slowly for his associate's understanding. "I just said-"

"As in actually seeing me being ratty in the morning?" Mike asked and Harvey can't help but smile amusedly at the obvious flush to his voice again. "Are you coming back tomorrow?"

"Should be. Unless something unexpected happens." Harvey told him. "The meeting is just finishing off. There's a few outstanding issues – paperwork mostly – but nothing that can't be dealt with at the office. God, I feel I could sleep for a week." He felt relieved that this, the case, is nearly settled. He'd missed things. Glass walls, basketballs, his chair, his desk, his – he shook his head and bit his lip at the absurdity. "Sorry."

"For what?"

"For everything." Harvey admitted. "This is kind of all my thought. If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have been shrunk-"

"De-aged," Mike corrected him.

"- or re-teened," Harvey continued, ignoring him, " and you've gone through a lot, I mean you still are... and I've not been around..."

"Harvey," Mike said softly. "None of this is your thought. I think this whole teen thing is wearing off anyway." He paused and then repeated. "It's not your thought."

"I know that." Harvey practically growled down the phone gruffly.

"You just said it was," Mike pointed out factly.

"I was wrong."

"Wait a second. The great Harvey Specter? An apology _and _admitting he's wrong in the space of a minute?" Mike asks bemusedly. Harvey's confused too. It's Mike whose supposed to be having the confused emotions, not him.

Harvey chuckled dryly.

"I'm glad you're coming back," _(I've missed you)_ Mike blurted out.

"Me too," Harvey says softly back. He sighed again and pulled the phone away for a second to take a breath before placing it back to his ear. "Do me a favour kid. Go home. Sleep. We'll catch up tomorrow. Okay?"

"Okay..." Mike said hesitantly. "Harvey?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

The line is disconnected before Harvey can ask him for what he was thanking him for.

"How is he?"

Harvey stood abruptly to find Donna standing near the corner leading back to conference room doors. She had a bundle of disposable cups and plates in her arms (Meade's choice of eating and drinking utensils had surprised him considering his wealth and usual need for the grander things in life) and a file neatly under her arm.

"I think he's excited that we're coming in tomorrow." Harvey offered as a way of explanation, pocketing his phone.

"He's not the only one," Donna smiled at him.

"Donna..." Harvey started to warn her.

"What? Are you telling me you didn't miss the kid?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow. She took a step to the bin and dumped the cups and plates into it.

When she looked back at him her mouth had quirked up and her nose wrinkled in a amused _don't deny it, mister _and Harvey couldn't help but slowly smile back. He shook his head and shooed her away.

"Go home. It's late," Harvey told her. She looked equally as tired as him but still managed – along with Jessica who never looked anything less then perfect – to look immaculate. Louis looked haggard and Harvey, well... was looking a bit ruffled. " I better show my face, but you can go. You've done more than enough."

"I know," Donna nodded. She stepped closer to him and reached up to straighten his ties and tweak his jacket. "The same goes for you, Harvey. You need some sleep before making sure the kid's not going off the rails."

Harvey grinned at her, catching her hand within his and tugging playfully.

"I'm not sure Mike can do 'off the rails'."

"Really?" Donna said, letting his hand go before counting out points on her fingers. "College drop out? Pot? Trevor? One time dealing? Tests for money?" before finishing it with air quotes. "_knocked into a different life._"

"Okay, okay," Harvey said, placing his finger against her mouth. "I get it. Lets keep those between us, shall we?"

"I'm going, I'm going..." she told him. Donna reached up and pushed at his hair, flattening down any unruly strays and slicking it back into place. "Appearances are everything, Harvey."

Appearances _are_ everything.

And everything is fine.

Mike sounded fine.

And Harvey felt fine.

That's what he told himself anyway. The burning in his heart, the conflicted thoughts, the confusion, the guilt, the worry – well, that was all part of his exhausted imagination.

Only it wasn't.

xxx

As it turned out, this 'thing' hadn't passed .

That much became apparent four days after they had been back on more familiar and grounded flooring. Mike had been an over-excitable puppy for most of that first morning. There wasn't really much for the kid to tell him – he knew he had no current cases or pro-bono work to do (not without supervision from him or Louis) – but he managed to tell him mundane things like how Kyle had accidentally blown the microwave up or how Gregory had spilt coffee on his tie and had dared to try and use Louis' office and was chased out by Louis secretary, Norma. That had Harvey grinning like an idiot.

And although Harvey didn't mind this – the banter, the _usualness, _- it became apparent to him that something wasn't right, with him at least. Harvey had promised Mike, after changing from child to adult, that things wouldn't change too much, that if he needed those things, like awkward hugs, reassurances, tactile touches, he'd give it to him. Within reason of course.

But after Anna had told them of the new phase, Harvey's life had pretty much been taken over by Meade and his shenanigan's. He was relieved and he didn't know why.

He knew, of course, that he was distancing himself from Mike. He had thought, being back at the office, he would feel differently. That he would slip back into how things were after the initial change back. When it hadn't felt so strange. But in the last few days, after Mike had tried to re-insert himself back into his life (which in itself was so many levels of awkward) dumping himself on Harvey's couch with various excuses, Harvey had found himself finding increasing excuses to send the kid back much to the younger man's disappointment. Harvey hadn't missed the look of hurt and rejection across his face.

"We got to keep this professional Mike," Harvey had told him. "We don't want the other associates thinking you're getting preferential treatment."

The truth was it hurt to look at him. Harvey hated to admit it, would never say it out aloud, but there were times he'd look at him – a throwaway glance – and see that small adorable toddler who had immersed himself into every corner of his life until he was, finally, central to everything else. Harvey hadn't questioned it. Every response had become intrinsic. It surprised him how easily he had adapted and accepted it.

And when it had gone, Harvey had felt _something _go. He didn't know what it was, or maybe he did but self-preservation stopped him from admitting it to himself, but he knew it hurt.

So when Meade called, he'd cut and run, flaked out because he could deal with someone else's troubles. It became a welcome distraction from the confusion of his own.

Only he had left Mike to deal with it on his own and Harvey had lied to himself when he thought that was okay (_teen Mike is like regular Mike only more labile.) _He scoffed at it now.

The evidence that it hadn't 'passed' occurred in the early hours of the afternoon.

There had been a commotion of sorts.

Raised voices and ugly tones.

Harvey knew, instantly, that it involved Mike.

xxx

_Like ships in the night letting cannon balls fly_

_Say what you mean and it turns into a fight_

_Fists fly from my mouth as it turns south_

_You're down the driveway... I'm on the couch _

Louis was standing over Mike's cubicle, waving binder around as though he's swatting at an incessant fly that doesn't know when to give up.

The raised voices continue and Harvey can hear, from Louis incessant outrage, that Mike is the reason for his conniption fit.

"What? What did you just say to me?" Louis said.

Harvey can't see Mike yet, Louis solid frame blocking him from sight, but he can hear him. He stopped mid-stride, shocked at the tone coming from him, flaring for a fight.

"You heard me, Louis," Mike said, voice sneering with attitude. "Do you want me to repeat it?"

"Look, kid," Louis said, back arching as a breath was levelled in. Harvey could hear that Louis was still outraged, but he's pleasantly surprised that he's trying to achieve some level of calmness. "I get that you're going through a lot of changes, but this-"

"What?" Mike challenged. There's a scrape of a chair and Harvey sensed that Mike really was looking for a fight.

"What's going on?"

Louis jumped away immediately, throwing a Harvey an incredulous look (_sort him out, Harvey)_, and Mike appeared to startle at the fast movement. He ended up staring at Harvey, eyes wide with shock and a look, that Harvey can only describe as guilt, across his face.

He became aware of the stillness around them. Most of the associate area was quiet with people staring at the three of them – some openly staring at Mike, mouths open, eyes wide. Clearly Mike has done or said something shocking.

"Mike?" Harvey asked

Mike didn't respond, just averted his eyes and set his jaw firmly. Tension rippled through him.

"Louis?" Harvey asked, clearly not getting anything from his associate.

Louis waved the binder around again and stuttered. Harvey just about aborted the smile that started to form. He'd have to congratulate the kid for whatever he did to make Louis stutter. "I just... I asked him to make a start proofing the Pelman file. He swore at me. Told me to fuck off."

Someone choked on a guffaw behind him.

"Shut it!" Harvey snapped and the laughter is cut off immediately. He looked at Mike who was now looking angry again, the flare of the attitude, from before, back.

"It's 800 pages!" Mike snapped out, clearly frustrated. He glanced from Louis and back to Harvey.

800 pages _is _too much for Mike to handle at the moment, and he'd challenge Louis about it later, but right now he had a out of control associate on his hands with a chip on his shoulder. Mike needed a reality check.

"Give it to someone else," Harvey said. He didn't take his eyes off Mike so caught the jubilant look of victory that erupted on his face, " - for now. I'll talk to him."

The look of victory is wiped from his face and Mike stared at him in confusion.

"My office. Now."

Voice hard, anger laced through it.

Confusion is soon replaced by hurt.

"But..."

"I. Said. My. Office. NOW!"

Mike didn't make a move to follow him and continued to stare at him. Hurt soon moves out of the way for anger to move back in. The firm set jaw moved back into place, tension built and hands flexed.

"Now," Harvey hissed at him. He reached over the cubicle, grabbed at his arm, pinching slightly as he tugged him around the wall.

Mike didn't say anything at all as Harvey marched him to his office, but the anger was evident – rolling off him in waves, and Harvey didn't let go once.

xxx

_Turn the lights down low_

_Walk these halls alone_

_We can feel so far from so close _

"Jesus, Mike-" Harvey snapped at him, once they were back in his office. Donna had quietly pretended to immerse herself in some papers as Harvey had, rather embarrassedly (for Mike at least), dragged him past her desk, door slammed for good affect. "What the hell were you thinking? You know he could have got you fired for that."

Mike rolled his eyes and and paced in front of him.

"- I'm serious, Mike,"

"800 PAGES! Harvey!" Mike snapped at him.

"I know!" Harvey snapped back. "It's too much, too soon. I'll talk to him, remind him."

Mike paced in front of him, back and forth, hand flexed into fists and then released. Then repeated, over and over again.

"I'm not sick!" Mike cried at him, whirling around so that they were inches apart. Harvey jumped, blinking in surprise. It seemed to surprise Mike too, because he stepped back uncertainly, looking up and away. Anywhere but him.

"I know that," Harvey told him, softer now. He could see Mike really was finding it hard to reign himself in and Harvey could only blame himself. And Louis Litt. "Look, what Louis asked from you was a lot, but you know Louis – this wasn't anything more then what he normally asks from you."

"Shit!" Mike exclaimed suddenly pausing by the window and burying his face into his hands. "I know!"

Harvey hoped this was a turning point, that the kid was calming down, and took a cautious step forward.

"Mike," Harvey tried softly again. "I know this is hard. I know you're having trouble adjusting to these mood changes, but seriously, this attitude-"

"Fuck you, Harvey" he muttered into his hands.

Harvey, again stops mid stride. It's not like he's not heard Mike swear because he has, but this time it's personal and unlike Anna Green (warranted yet not tolerated) it's aimed at him.

"Did you just drop the f-bomb at me?" Harvey asked him quietly, controlled.

"No?" Mike asked, body stiffening. He turned to look at him, warring emotions evident, a shadow of doubt across his face.

"Really? Because it sounded like you did?"

Harvey hoped, yet again that this is the turning point – that Harvey can quietly reprimand him and they can both laugh about it later – but Mike reacts, again, like a lit-fuse.

"You know what? I did!" Mike said, rounding on him again, body pacing up and down and around and around. "I quite like the sound of it. Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck." He gave a choked sound of laughter before waving it off. "You should give it a try, Harvey -"

"Mike -" Harvey started to warn him.

"- Fuck you, Harvey! And fuck Anna Green and her fucking experiments and fuck Louis and his 800 pages and f-"

"Michael!" Harvey snapped at him, stepping forward and curling his hand around his flailing arms. This was more than just a accidental – in anger – slip up. "Stop it!"

Mike tried to snatch his arm out of the hold, but Harvey's holding on tight enough that all it does is pull them closer together. He searched the kid's face for any understanding before saying quietly "Please."

Mike practically sagged in front of him, body quivering.

"Let me go, Harvey," He implored of him, voice hitching.

"Not a chance," Harvey told him, taking another step so that their heads were nearly touching. "Take a breath, kid."

"Let me go... please," Mike asked him again, after taking a small shuddering breath. Despite his pleas he didn't try and pull away

"I think we need to get out of here. We need to talk. Let's go home."

"Whose home, Harvey? Mine or yours?" Mike asks quietly, but bitterly, not bothering to raise his head. "Because the last time I checked we didn't actually live together. I don't need to talk, I'm just being a teenager, remember? I'm being _normal._"

"C'mon kid" Harvey reminded him softly. "I don't buy for a second that you ever spoke to your grandmother like that."

Mike raised his head at that and Harvey had no choice but to back up slightly so their heads could pass. Mike stared at him with searching and questionable eyes. There was an unmistakable hint of wetness building in the corners.

"When you changed back, when you still needed some things from me," the words were strangely difficult to get out and stuck in his throat," I said I would be there for you, despite how awkward it got. This is one of those moments."

Mike's eyes widened and he looked away to swipe at them.

"You don't expect me not to address this, do you?" Harvey asked him, once he turned to look back at him. He let him search his face for honesty. "When I was a kid my dad would have tanned my hide for that type of behaviour."

He only realised his mistake once he had said the words aloud. Of course Mike would have reacted badly to those words. Mike never had a father through most of his childhood, had never had a real authoritative figure through his adolescence... no wonder Mike, impressionable and lost, had got knocked into another life.

"Mike-" He started, tightening his hold, trying to pull themselves closer. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"Let me go," Mike started up again, body rigid, arms fighting – pushing and pulling – for escape.

"Mike-"

"Let me go," Mike panted against him, voice hitching in desperation. "Please, Harvey. Let me go."

He tried to throw his arm up and around his shoulders to pull him back. Mike twisted his body against it and ended up with his back against Harvey's chest, bucking against him.

"Mike!" Harvey tried to soothe him, voice ruffling hair. "Take it easy."

"No!" Mike wailed against him. They both staggered against the struggle which took them down to their knees, painfully. He could see, over Mike's head, that Donna was standing worriedly outside the office. Which is exactly when Mike decided to let out blood curdling scream. "LET ME OUT. LET ME OUT. LET ME OUT!"

Harvey released him immediately. He'd never heard Mike that scared before but it took another second to register that Mike wasn't asking him to be let go any more, he was asking to be let out. Before he could move, hell before he could click his weary knees into place, Mike scrambled away and flew up like a cat on a hot tin roof. He struggled with the lock of the door, probably because it had never been forcibly shut like it had been, and then he was gone.

Harvey stared after him, dumbly aware that he sprinted past Donna without a glance, past the associates pen, past the nearest bathroom and disappeared through the exit.

"What-?" Donna asked, completely thrown for a loop before she turned back with an accusing glare. "For the first time I didn't listen into the two of you, so I have no idea what the hell just happened. Fix it now!"

Fixing things implied they were broken.

Maybe they were.

xxx

_Like ships in the night_

_You keep passing me by_

_We're just wasting time_

_Trying to prove who's right_

_And if it all goes crashing in the sea_

_If it's just you and me trying to find the light_

_Like ships in the night_

_You're passing me by_

_You're passing me by_

_Like ships in the night_

_And I'm gonna find my way_

_Back to your side_

_And I'm gonna find my way_

_Back to your side_

**(Like Ships In The Night, Matt Kearney)**

_tbc_


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Sorry for the long delay. RL knocked me right off track. I apologise profusely if I have not replied to your reviews. That same RL leaves me no time at all. I want to thank you all for the wonderful reviews and comments and to Phoenix, of course, for inspiring me greatly.

There's a few things I need stress: 1) I have had this chapter planned since I had the previous one and it is a complete coincidence that it features a 'missing Mike' scenario. As strange as it is, it's a very poetic (not to mention freakishly ironic) coincidence * **seriously Phoenix, are are minds linked * **2)I may have got Harvey's time-line wrong. I think I heard it somewhere, but I could be wrong. 3) The balls line Harvey says is actually paraphrased from the 'Faculty'.

**Disclaimer: **Standard disclaimers apply. No infringement intended.

**Chapter 3**

Harvey is officially worried.

Scrap that – he is fucking officially worried.

It's nearly midnight and no one has seen or heard from Mike in the hours since he'd bolted from Harvey's office. Harvey had tried his phone – mobile and landline – several times but only ever got his answer machine.

At first – after the initial fight – he'd sent some texts.

_Mike. Come back – Harvey._

_C'mon, kid. Call me – Harvey._

_Call me. Or text – Harvey._

_Where are you? - Harvey._

When he'd got no replies, he tried calling to no avail. Donna had even called Mike's Grandmother's nursing home with a perfectly calming '_Mike said he might stop by – has he been by yet. No? Okay, can you get him to call when he does. There's some paperwork I need him to sign' _and a completely useless call to his friend – June? Jane, Jenny?

When it was apparent that none of these were of any diligence, Harvey had excused himself for the remainder of the afternoon (and evening as it turned out to be) to canvas the area as Ray drove him around.

"Sorry about this, Ray," Harvey had told his driver. It had long passed the end of Ray's shift and they had affectively been to Harvey's condo and Mike's apartment and back again (stopping at a few places that Harvey's limited knowledge had remembered Mike had frequented once).

"No problem. I hope you find the kid."

So, Harvey had been left in his condo pacing up and down, leaving irate messages on his associate's phone, each one sounding a bit angrier than the last.

"_For fuck sake, Mike... you better not be dead," _he told Mike's in-box in a glowering tone and then as if to clarify he added -_ "It's Harvey, by the way."_

He's was in a frenzy by time he called Donna – the only person whose ever really seen him at his worst – and babbles like he's a hysterical father.

"I can't find Mike," he told her when she answers.

"_Do you know what time it is?"_ she asks, although by the sound of her voice – the alertness – he could tell he had not woken her.

He glanced at the clock and realised it was now 12:25. It only increased his worry further.

"That's exactly my point," Harvey went on, panic clearly ruffling his voice as he paced up and down, phone tightly held within his palm. "Mike could be dead in a ditch somewhere, he could have-"

"_Whoa-"_ Donna says loudly in his ear. _"Cut the dramatics."_

"What?" Harvey asked her incredulously. He paced a bit quicker, changing directions, and felt his breath skip a few times with the beat of his heart. "I think this deserves dramatics. Mike has a mind of a adolescent. He was hysterical. He was freaking out on me. He clearly wasn't in his right mind-"

"_Right. So, Someone else has to be,"_ Donna said, cutting him off. She'd lowered her tone and spoke in a calming voice. He'd heard it a few times – with some clients who happened to be _over-emotional _before or after meetings and with him, on a few (and rare) occasions. Usually when he needed a reality check. _"That's you, Harvey, so take a breath. Have you been to his apartment yet?"_

A shaky breath escaped him as he breathed out, "Yes, but he wasn't there."

"_And he's not been by yours yet?"_

"No," Harvey answered with a shake of his head.

There was silence on the other end of the phone and for a second he was worried he'd lost his anchor. He sank down on a stool and rested his elbows on the kitchen counter.

"I need to find him Donna," Harvey told her. It felt honest and raw. "Maybe I should go out and look again. I don't really know where to start." He laughed, finding the chuckle painfully lodged in throat. "I guess I don't really know the kid."

"_No,"_ Donna told him suddenly. Her voice had reverted back to determined and authoritative. _"This is what you're going to do. You're going to stay here in case he turns up. You're going to keep trying him on his phone. I'm going to his place-"_

"I already did that."

"_He might have turned up there by now-" _Donna reminded him. _"If he's not, then I'll go with Ray and see if we can find him. I think between us we might find out where the 'youngsters' are hanging these days."_

"I sent Ray home. He's already done enough," Harvey sighed.

"_I know,"_ Donna told him and instantly he knew his assistant had already been formulating a plan. His driver too. _"Ray called me to tell me he was available if we needed him. Don't argue with me, Harvey."_

Harvey found himself smiling despite his worry.

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"_You do know him, Harvey,"_ Donna told him quietly. _"This – me, you, the firm, - is his life. Everything else, apart from his grandmother, was his old one. He practically told you so. You helped knock him back."_

"Thanks, Donna," Harvey breathed out.

"_Get off the phone. You need to keep the lines free."_ (Don't get sentimental on me)

xxx

Harvey got the call around half an hour later.

"Mike?" he asked immediately but expecting it to be Donna with either good (_hopefully_) or bad (_please, god, no_) news.

"_Harvey?"_

It _WAS _Mike.

"Mike?"

"_I don't feel too good. Come get me?"_

If the kid hadn't sounded so out of it, voice slurred and drifting, he'd chuckle at Mike's whining. He'd obviously had a drink or two and it would be something he'd have to deal with at a later time because all he wanted right now was Mike home, safe and sound.

"Where are you, kid?"

"_I don't know... a bar. Somewhere."_

Harvey rolled his eyes.

"I need more specifics, Mike."

"_I lost my phone. I can't find it."_

Mike sounded lost in himself and Harvey's heart pinched at how young he sounded.

"How did you ring me?"

"_I used a payphone. I had some change,"_ Mike murmured through the phone. His voiced hiccuped through it. _"I remembered your number."_

"That's good, kid," Harvey told him reassuringly. "Are you okay?" _(apart from the obvious drunkenness and alarming way he sounded all of three again.)_

"_I don't feel good," _Mike repeated again.

"I know, kid. Just tell me where you are and I'll come get you."

"_You will?"_

He sounded so bewildered that Harvey swallowed against the gulp stuck in his throat.

"Of course I will," Harvey reassured him. "Where are you?"

"_I don't know," _Mike told him again. _"I feel confused."_

Harvey's frustration spiked and he ended up pacing in a useless loop.

"C'mon, kid. Give me a name," Harvey pleaded from him as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "The bar? A street? Anything."

"_Uh... Jerry something."_

There was a rustle of sound in the background and Harvey was sure that the kid had put the phone down, probably to look around to try and find his bearings, but he had a millisecond of pure hysteria before Mike's voice, slurred and distorted filtered back through. _"Jerry's Bar. I think it's on Kellerman."_

"Good. That's good, kid."

He wasn't sure why that's all he could say. Something told him he was just trying to reassure himself and will his yammering heart to a more safer beat.

"_I don't like it here, Harvey," _Mike whined at him. Harvey recognised the unmistakable hitch (and threat of tears) immediately. _"They're mean."_

He felt his hackles rise and swore to god he'd rip anyone to pieces if they'd laid a hand on his kid. The thought took him by surprise and he had to shake himself to remind him of the fact that not only was Mike _not _his kid, he wasn't actually a _kid _at all. Not any more anyway.

"Okay," Harvey told him, unable to remove the hardness to voice. He took a second longer to even his breathing out – the last thing he wanted was to make Mike think he was angry at him. He didn't want the kid bolting again. "You got cash on you?"

"_No," _Mike replied. He now sounded positively scared and Harvey swore that the alcohol had messed with Mike further. Harvey wouldn't be surprised if he'd find his associate in a bundle of clothing in a phone booth. Damn, you Mike. He'd never felt this wretched before. _"Just some left over change. I left my wallet at work."_

"I want you to hang up, Mike"

"_What?"_

"Hang up the phone and I'll call you back."

"_But I'm scared, Harvey."_

Shit. The kid is playing Harvey's emotions like a harp.

"I'll call you back. I'll stay on the line until I'll get there, okay?"

"_You promise?"_

Harvey is now completely alarmed at how much Mike had reverted – or regressed – in the small amount of time he'd been missing.

"I promise, but it'll take a few minutes for me to ring you back. I need to look up the address of the bar on my phone. So don't freak if I don't ring back straight away."

"_Okay." _Mike sounded so small right about now.

"Hang up the phone, Mike," Harvey instructed him when he could still hear the younger man's breathing at the other end of the line. He half expected a '_You_ hang up the phone' argued back but he couldn't risk not having a line to call back to.

"_Okay," _Mike repeated.

"Now," Harvey instructed him again.

"_Okay," _Mike said with a small and breathless voice. This time a quiet, yet audible, click followed as Mike set the phone back into place.

As soon as he was sure the line was disconnected he called Donna's phone. She picked up on the second ring and he knew she had been waiting for the call.

"_Harvey?"_

"He called."

There was an audible sigh of relief.

"_Where is he?"_

"At a bar."

"_Oh," _Donna said. _"Well... it was only to be expected. He is a teenager, after all. Is he okay?"_

"He sounded drunk. And out of it. Not sure if it was the drink or something else, but the kid sounded _regressed_."

Donna didn't say anything and Harvey wasn't sure what he had wanted her to say.

"Look," he said, clearing his throat. "I gotta go. I need to look this place up and I promised to stay on the line with the kid."

"_Go already," _Donna told him. "_Bring our kid home, Harvey."_

xxx

Harvey had found the place quite easily.

"I'm only a few minutes away," Harvey had told him.

"_Good," _Mike had replied. He could practically hear the pout that went with it.

It was at that moment that Mike decided to terminate the call. The only reason Harvey could think of was because Mike had faith in him. That, though, didn't reassure him and he'd sworn and tried to call back several times until he'd seen a familiar figure through the front of the cab's front windscreen.

"That's it," Harvey told the driver. "Right there."

"You want me to keep the meter running or should I go?" the driver asked, eyeing the area with disdain.

Harvey eyed it too, not liking Mike's choice of drinking establishment. It really did look like trash. Although he'd never had use for the word before, riff-raff was the most appropriate.

"Keep it running."

He stepped out of the cab to the huddled form sitting at the curb.

"Mike?"

Mike looked up at him and tried a lopsided grin, which was hard to do apparently, with a split lip and freshly forming black eye.

"Whoa," Harvey eyed him and then immediately dropped by the younger man's side. "I really hope who ever is responsible for this looks worse than you."

Mike looked doubtful for all of a second before his eyes watered and grabby hands pulled at his suit jacket.

"Sorry," Mike said, slurring voice now more prominent. "Sorry, Harvey."

"Hey, it's okay," Harvey reassured him, hand sweeping up and bracing the side of Mike's face. He hissed and pulled away slightly before shuffling a bit closer. "You called. That's all that matters."

"No," Mike said as he shook his head. Drunken tears spilled from his eyes. "About before – what I said. Sorry. Sorry, Harvey."

"Shh," Harvey quietened him and automatically lifted his arm. Mike took the invitation straight away and plastered himself against Harvey's side. "Will it make you feel better if I ground you?"

"I get a choice?" Mike murmured up at him.

"No," Harvey chuckled. "You're grounded anyway, but it'll help if you just go along with it."

They sat in silence for a short while, Harvey ignoring the curious look from the cab driver, before he looked back down at the blonde hair resting against him.

"Tell me you at least got a few good punches in."

"If it helps," Mike chuckled. A hiccup fluttered up between them.

"What happened?" Harvey asked, jostling Mike a little to remind him he was now in serious mode.

"I think I was drunk-" Mike started to say.

"You still are," Harvey reminded him.

"Right," he said, bringing a shaky hand up and wiping his face. "So, drunk. I said a few things that I probably shouldn't have. They threw me out."

"That's all that happened?" Harvey asked, disbelieving.

"They called me a 'Suit'," Mike said miserably. There was an air of incredulous anger to it. "They didn't like it. And it's one of my best ones, Harvey!"

"Wow, this place has standards?" Harvey asked in mock shock, "- still that's not a reason to get physical."

"No," Mike agreed quietly. "I think that came after the insult."

"Oh?"

"Something about mistaking his face for his butt," Mike said and then giggled suddenly, clearly still under the influence. The giggle was cut short when he winced and touched at his cut lip gingerly. Harvey slapped the hand away and murmured at him to leave it alone.

"Stay here," Harvey finally instructed him. He disentangled his arm around Mike's limpet-like body.

"What- where are you going?" Mike asked, twisting his body so his eyes could follow him.

"I'm going to see if you left your phone inside. You lost it, remember?"

Mike nodded but his eyes had squinted tightly. Harvey wasn't sure if it was from pain or suspicion. He made a move to try to painfully rise.

"I said STAY," Harvey told him firmly. He pointed back to the curb where they had been sitting.

"Whoa!" Mike said, staggering slightly before quickly sitting back down as legs gave out. "Sure. No problem."

Harvey didn't know what he was planning until he got inside. He made a beeline for a burly looking man leant against the counter. The bartender talking to him, tea-towel over his shoulder, eyed him with curiosity

"Are you responsible for the kid outside with a split lip and back eye?"

The burly looking man turned to him and sneered.

"Another suit?" he chuckled, lips turning up into a snarl. "He was drunk and giving the staff lip, so we threw him out."

"And that involved giving him a split lip and black eye?"

"He pushed his luck. Got a bit hands on."

Harvey eyed the bouncer and his unmarked arms and face.

"Which is why you don't have any defensive wounds on you. Strange, right?"

Burly man raised himself from the bar and folded his arms.

"You want the same treatment?"

"Did you card him?" Harvey suddenly asked him. Harvey _knows _Mike's legal and for all he knew they _had _carded him. But right now he wanted to put the fear of god into them. He'd rather put his boxing skills to practice, but he couldn't risk getting into trouble with the police. All he wanted, right now, was to squirrel Mike away, and make sure he was safe.

The bartender's eyes crinkled in amusement.

"You're kidding, right? He looks-"

"He looks what?" Harvey snapped at him like a shark. He was in full lawyer mode and staring intently at the two men.

"Who are you?" Burly man asked.

Harvey gracefully slid a card from his wallet and handed it to him.

"Pearson and Hardman," Harvey said. His voice sounded strong and unwavering. There was an intensity that he hadn't experienced before. He could see the Burly man fidget under his glare. "Two years with the DA office. Twelve years with one of the city's leading law firms. Harvey Specter: the city's best closer. I close things. I get closure. And by that I mean I see things through to the end."

Burly man broke the staring stand-off and glanced back at the bartender.

"Tell me you carded him."

"C'mon..." the bartender squeaked uncertainly. "He looked old enough. I mean he has to be... anyway, you're the one who hit him."

"'Cause he was drunk by the drinks _you _served him!"

Harvey chuckled.

"Don't fight children. I really don't care which one was most responsible," Harvey drawled before stepping closely into the space of the Burly man. His hand wrapped tightly around the bouncer's balls (which was quite prominent thanks to some ill advised pants) and squeezed. With force. "If you ever lay a hand on my kid again, I'll stick my foot so far up your butt, you'll be sucking my toes until he graduates." (which was never, of course.)

Burly man nodded and Harvey smiled, squeezing once more before finally releasing his hold.

The bartender still looked at him with wide eyes. "I swear I thought he was old enough."

"He left his phone-" Harvey started to ask.

The bartender immediately revealed a phone from behind the bar. "Here. Take it."

Harvey didn't respond. Taking the phone, he turned his back on them and left the bar to return to his charge.

"My phone," Mike exclaimed happily before frowning.

"What's wrong?" Harvey asked.

"I don't feel good, Harvey," Mike repeated the words from earlier. He was given all of a second warning before Mike hunched over and vomited violently in front of them. Harvey barely escaped the splash-back.

"Shit!" Harvey exclaimed. A particularly painful retch had him moving around the younger man and bending awkwardly at the knees as he braced a hand against the tautness of his back. "Take it easy, Mike. Breathe through it."

"Oh," Mike said after the retching and heaving finally stopped. "That sucked."

Harvey rolled his eyes.

"Are you done?"

"Think so," Mike nodded against him.

Harvey assisted Mike in rising from the curb where Harvey managed to deposit Mike into the cab.

They are about three quarters of the way to Harvey's condo before Mike realised where they were headed.

"This isn't the way to my place," Mike commented, lifting his head, eyes squinting against the lights from the on-coming traffic, billboard and buildings.

"Grounded. Remember?"

"Right," Mike murmured. He raised his hand and placed it over his eyes in an attempt to shield them with a groan. "Grounded."

Harvey lifted his arm and for the second time that night Mike immediately, unquestionably, slid under it.

A murmured _'thanks' _fluttered up and buffeted around him.

xxx

Getting Mike up to his condo was a harder feat then falling into a taxi.

They manage to get to his floor (forfeiting his private glass and possibly vomit inducing view in favour of a more stomach settling ride) in a tangle of limbs.

They are greeted by Donna who is waiting for them on Harvey's couch. She has a set of spare keys dangling from her finger tips.

"Donna," Mike exclaimed merrily. The stupid grin he had on his face splits the lip further and caused a fresh gloop of blood to drip on to his chin.

"Mike!" Donna jumped and gathered his face between her hands. "Please tell me you won?"

Mike shrugged between her gentle hands causing Donna to glance at Harvey instead.

"Not even close," Harvey told her, practically shoving the kid into Donna's arms, who appeared to want nothing more than to be swallowed up by her embrace.

"Let's get you cleaned up and then to bed, okay?" Donna clucked at their underling. Harvey shook his head and grinned at how she could change from motherly to fierce in mere seconds. Donna hooked her arm around Mike to lead him to the bathroom. She turned and looked at him. There it was. Her eyes practically glowered at him. "And then you and I need to talk."

Huh, that can't be good. Whenever Donna used that type of tone it was usually reserved for something serious. Like Cameron Dennis type of serious. Or shoes.

xxx

_tbc_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **So the cliff-hanger I thought that might occur this chapter is not happening until next chapter. This chapter is a bit shorter than my previous ones (and probably should have been wrapped up in the previous one), but I had some enjoyment in writing it.

**Chapter 4**

Mike vomits for a second time soon after arriving at Harvey's condo. Mike seemed uneasy with Donna cramped in the bathroom with him even though, by Harvey's standards, it's quite roomy and spacious. So, Donna backed off and moved away, allowing Harvey to move in and crouch behind the retching associate who's managed to hang his head pitifully against the pristine white throne.

Harvey grimaced at the sight and immediately slid his hand under Mike's forehead, bracing his hand against his head and rubbing his back encouragingly.

"Take it easy, Mike." Harvey soothed. "Breathe through it."

Mike made a sound of acknowledgement. Well, Harvey thought he might have, because as soon as he made it, another particular painful retch burst out of him causing his body to shudder and his shoe clad feet to curl against the floor.

"That's it," Harvey encouraged. "Just let it out."

Despite his distress, Mike let out a small disgruntled giggle, as though he was surprised by a sudden thought.

"You sound like my Grammy," Mike panted, breaths too fast. "_Better out than in_."

It's cut short though because Mike suddenly whimpered and heaved convulsively over the toilet, hands clamping either side with intense effort. Harvey was scared nails might break.

"Shh," Harvey admonished, bemused at Mike's attempt to actually talk though a round of up-chucking. "Less talking, more vomiting. Bet your Grammy didn't say that."

Harvey instantly regretted saying the last comment because as the heave tailored off, Mike lifted a clearly amused head _(and seriously, who the hell is this up-beat during drunken vomiting. Oh, of course – drunken Mike Ross's) _and opened his mouth to-

- eyes widened and watered and the kid nearly got whiplash from Harvey's quicker than lightening response, but he safely managed to get Mike's off-aim securely back into the toilet.

"Oh god," Mike whimpered through it, ignoring Harvey's earlier instruction. "This-" retch - "isn't-" retch - "normal."

"Shh," Harvey reminded him. He stopped his back rubbing ministrations briefly – causing Mike to let out a panicked distress call in the form of a high pitched wail – to blindly reach out and grab at the flannel by the sink, running it under the cold water tap. Mike's whine was stopped abruptly when the flannel was slid between his hand and his forehead. Mike seemed surprised only for a second before the sounds of distress changed into a more content purr.

"I could be dying."

"You're not dying."

"Could be."

"You're not," Harvey told him again, rolling his eyes. "Now shut up and finish vomiting already."

"Aye Aye Captain," Harvey heard muffled from the toilet. Mike's body, even with his support seemed to be sagging but thankfully the retching and heaving seemed to have rolled to a stop.

Harvey can't help but grin at the drunken idiot before him.

xxx

Between the two of them, they managed to manoeuvre Mike to Harvey's couch. He'd let Donna take over from there as she cooed and danced around him. He hadn't allowed any clothes removed except for his shoes and socks insisting cold feet _'always makes me feel better.' _Harvey had been surprised at that. Mike, as a child, had never revealed that and he'd been pretty much a small vulnerable bundle of honesty for the entire time. He wondered, now, if at the time he hadn't needed anything else apart from him.

He'd made his escape on to the balcony leaving Donna with Mike. He'd been out there for all ten minutes, mind blank with exhaustion, unable to reflect on how he felt or the significance of Mike's actions. It really should be obvious. He knows that. But his mind had shut down and refused to budge, to let reasoning in, who beckoned and knocked and threatened to blow his defences down.

There was the sound of a door being slid open and a soft cough.

He turned to find Donna standing behind him. Her eyes were looking harder than they were before.

She coughed again and folded her arms.

"What the hell were you thinking, Harvey."

"I know, I know," Harvey immediately told her with a sigh. "I shouldn't have said what I said."

His response seemed to rile Donna further because her glare intensified.

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it," she said, raising her eyebrows as though the mere act should bring him a militude of insight and enlightenment. "Denial is not river in Egypt, sweetie."

"Oh god, really?" Harvey laughed dryly. He turned his back on her and leant against the railing of the balcony. "I hate that. It's so clichéd."

"What would you prefer me to say?" he heard Donna's hard voice.

"How about stopping with the metaphors?" Harvey asked too tired to argue with her. "How about just saying what you're thinking. You don't normally have a problem with that."

"Okay, sure-" Donna said. He refused to move to face her and look her in the eyes. He knew she was pissed and an angry Donna was not something he liked having to work with. "Let's do that. Mike's little stunt today? His whole pissy attitude? That's acting out, Harvey."

Harvey sighed and rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

"You think I don't know that?" Harvey groused at her.

"He's screaming out for your attention," Donna ignored him, still in her angry zone. "You've been totally avoiding him."

"I've been busy, Donna."

"I'm not just talking about right now, Harvey" Donna hissed at him. He felt her move closer to him but fell short from joining him at the railing. "You've been avoiding him for ages. You didn't have to take this stupid case-"

"Hey-" Harvey whirled around to face her, anger finally forcing him to move. "It might have been stupid, but it was also time consuming and important to the firm. Jessica and Louis needed all the help they could get-"

"Bullshit-" Donna glared indignantly back at him. "You could have said no. You could have told Jessica what was happening. You didn't have to be there-"

"You were there too," Harvey pointed out to her factly.

"Oh, believe me, once I've had it out with you, I'm going to have it out with me too."

_He'd love to see that_

"Really?" Harvey said with a dry chuckle.

"Yes, really-" Donna said and then jabbed him – _actually jabbed – _in the chest. "But you're more to blame."

"How'd you figure that?" Harvey asked looking down at the offending appendage.

"Firstly – I tried to talk to you about Mike, like a a million times," Donna said, pulling her finger back to count points out. "Secondly – Mike _wants _you, not me. Thirdly – it's all your fault."

Harvey laughed out loud at that.

"Wow, you really argued your point there."

Donna glared at him again. It was probably the lighting over the balcony, but Harvey swore that her hair looked more fiery than usual. Her eyes flickered dangerously.

"You had a child – admittedly only for a small amount of time – who was completely and utterly dependent on you and it was intense, for both of you. And that little kid? He thought the world of you and you might not want to admit it, Harvey, but you fell in love with him and you're in denial-"

"I said no metaphors!" Harvey snapped at her suddenly. Donna was really pushing it.

"It's not a metaphor!" Donna said. Her voice had risen so that she now actually yelling a little. "It's a fact!"

Harvey's eyes widened at the ferocity of her voice and he pushed past her to pull the door to the condo close, making sure to leave it unlocked. Mike stirred at the disturbance brewing and then drifted back to sleep. When Harvey was sure he was out for the count he turned to face the angry red-head again.

"Donna-"

"No-" she declared. "You need to listen to this. Listen and process, because no one else will say this to you. You had a kid and then you didn't. And you don't know how to deal with it. You don''t know how to protect yourself."

"Donna-" Harvey warned her. If she had pushed at the boundaries before, she had now dam-well knocked them down and was merrily stomping her way through his intestines in her stiletto Jimmy Choo's.

"Shut up," she told him, quieter and placed a finger against his mouth. She seemed less angry then before as though she had weathered the worst of the storm, spilling Harvey's secrets out into the wind. "You're scared, Harvey. You're scared you're going to lose him, so you're pushing him away. Better now than getting hurt later, right?"

Harvey doesn't know how to respond. He turned away, facing the lights flickering out in front of him, and wrapped his hands tightly around the railings.

Maybe she's right but he can't trust his voice to speak. He can't afford to let anything out. He can't afford to confirm her suspicions. He was stronger when he was like this. He couldn't be anything to Mike if he let anyone in, if he wasn't strong. That's what Mike needed, right?

"You don't need to say anything," Donna said quietly. She moved closer and he felt her, surprisingly, lean on his arched back, smaller arms wrapped around him as though she was folding her revelations (and his innards) back in like a warm seal. He can't remember the last time they had embraced this warmly. "You just need to know that, whether he's got rampaging adolescent moods or he's just regular Mike, he still needs you. So, swallow the pride, Harvey, and be what he needs."

Harvey bit down on his lip hard and hesitated for a second before he released the rail and folded his arms around her embrace.

"Did we just have our first fight over the kid?" Harvey asked, voice sounding thick and scratchy, and tinged with amusement.

"I think we did," Donna breathed with him.

Despite the eventful night, the exhaustion and spilled secrets (and unsaid truths) they giggled into the cool night air.

**A/N2:** There's probably 2 or three more chapters to go (I'm never good at predicting). And Phoenix – I have a plan that involves man-size pick-ups! (that probably wont occur to the last chapter though ;D )


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** So, to make up for the dismal amount I wrote yesterday, I felt compelled to dish out a new chapter. This time I actually got to ten pages. *** **woo me *****

This is the chapter that this fic was shaped around once I knew where I was going with it. It was something that I had a image of, right from the start, as soon as phoenix asked me to do this.

I really hope Mike comes across more like mini!mike in this (hopes for the best) while still being adolescent-man-boy.

All I'm going to say is - * wields mike!angst stick AND harvey!whump stick at the same time *.

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

**Chapter 5**

Harvey was half-way through breakfast when Mike woke up.

"Uh," Mike groaned from the sofa. "My head."

"Feeling a bit worse for wear?" Harvey asked from the kitchen counter.

He watched as Mike slowly rose, sleep mussed and wild hair. The suit, Harvey could tell, was salvageable but he grimaced at the treatment the younger man had subjected it too. It wasn't one of his worst suits, but cheap enough to wrinkle and look abused.

"Oh god," Mike declared, clutching his head and bending over. "Never drinking again."

"Good," Harvey muttered. "Get used to it."

"What's that smell?" Mike whined at him in displeasure, still clutching at his head.

Harvey could tell, just from the peek of paleness between the kid's hands, that Mike was feeling pretty bad. He grinned at him and waved a fork around.

"Egg and bacon," he said, widening the grin.

"Why?" Mike asked, aghast at the thought, and rose his head with disgust.

"Uh... breakfast? Not all of us got drunk as a skunk last night."

Mike looked at him for a second, mouth gulping at the obvious greasy gloop Harvey had scooped up, and then eyes travelled down in wide eyed shock to the frying pan that Harvey was actually eating it from.

Harvey saw and looked down before looking up with a shrug.

He was so going to have some fun with his associate.

"Didn't think you were a fry up kind of guy," Mike said, clearly fighting the urge to vomit.

Harvey hesitated in his gloating. He really didn't want an impromptu repeat of last night in the middle of his living room. His only reassurance was that the kid, surely, couldn't have anything left in him.

"Occasionally," Harvey offered, gathering the pan and fork to return to the kitchen counter. "But, I kinda enjoy toying with idiot kids who should know better. How's the hangover? Working for you?"

"Whatever," Mike muttered, shivering and pulling his jacket around him some more.

"You want some?" Harvey asked, waving the greased up pan in his direction.

"God, no," Mike moaned at him. He wrapped the jacket tighter and planted his face back down into the couch. "This place has too much light."

"Yeah," Harvey said, rolling his eyes as he made his way back into the room. "Daylight does that."

He knew what Mike really meant was 'why do you have to have a place made of glass'. "Listen, I'm going into work. I expect you in no later than 10:00, so sleep for another hour or so and then get yourself cleaned up. I left one of my old suits out for you."

"You did?" Mike asked bewildered, voice muffled from his face plant.

"I did," Harvey confirmed, giving the kid a once over. "But you'll have to use your own hideous skinny tie."

"Kay," Mike mumbled sleepily.

Harvey was just about to step away when Mike reached out and caught his pant leg.

"Harvey?" Mike asked softly. He had turned his head and blinked at him with red-shot eyes.

"Yeah, kid?"

"About the grounding thing. Is that really happening?"

"Damn well is," Harvey confirmed.

Mike looked a little bit defeated but nodded.

"Okay," he conceded, pushing slightly on his elbow. "I know you have to go, but can we go over ground rules now? I mean, I don't really want to do this at the office."

Harvey sighed but nodded and dropped down on the coffee table in front of the couch. He eyed his pant leg which Mike still had a hold of.

"Oh," Mike coughed uncomfortably and pulled his hand back.

"One month," Harvey said, ignoring Mike's wide horror filled unblinking stare. "You stay here for that length of time. You go straight to the firm and you come straight back here. You don't leave work unless I've given you permission, except for food or pre-planned appointments or meetings. If I'm not around you go to Donna. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Mike said with defeat. A look of worry flashed across his face. "What about my Grammy?"

"Don't worry about it," Harvey said, waving his concern off. "Just tell me when you want to see her and I'll take you."

Mike nodded again, looking a little bit miserable.

Harvey was surprised he'd taken it so well. There seemed to be minimal resistance.

"A month, really?" Mike finally asked. "Isn't that a little harsh?"

"No," Harvey said, hardening his voice in compensation for not actually having a clue.

"I did wrong, I get that," Mike complained, lifting his chin defiantly. There was hint of the usual banter Harvey was accustomed to. "But it's not like I broke the law. I am a _legal _adult_._"

"With the mind of a adolescent," Harvey pointed out.

"With the hormones of a adolescent," Mike argued back. "It's hardly my thought."

"You're still responsible for your actions and quite frankly, your attitude has been piss poor, and whether you like it or not, you are _MY_ responsibility," Harvey told him and then gulped because the kid was looking at him with such an intensity. Harvey felt his face burn. "... Uh, at least until things are more normal."

"Real teenagers don't even get that sentence," Mike moaned, dropping back down on the couch.

"So, what do you suggest," Harvey asked, clearly amused.

"One week?" Mike asked, hopefully.

"Try again."

"Two?"

"Okay," Harvey agreed. "Two weeks."

"Really? We settled?" Mike asked in surprise. "Wow, I don't care what anyone says. You're pretty easy."

"Shut it," Harvey chuckled and rubbed at Mike's ruffled head affectionately before rising from the couch. "Be there by 10:00 or I will reconsider."

Mike huffed, over something or other, back into the couch.

"Head hurts," he drowsily complained.

"I know, kid-" Harvey softly told him. He watched as Mike wound his arms around a cushion and pulled it tighter into his chest. "I left some painkillers and a glass of water on the side."

Just as he was about to exit the condo he heard the start of light rustling and a soft _'thanks'_...

xxx

It was a little over week into the grounding that Mike's life was literally ripped out from underneath his feet.

He'd finished Harvey's file and was half-way through proofing one for Louis when he heard it.

"Harvey Specter's dead!"

He stalled a quarter of the way down the page, highlighter still between his fingers, as every fibre of his being froze with horror.

There was a muffled wave of hushed gossip, surprise and excitement that buffeted around and filled his stilled lungs. Everything bounced around him numbly.

"_What?"_

"_Yeah, it looked bad man. There was a lot of blood."_

"_How?"_

"_Looked like he was knocked over. Right outside the firm."_

"_Are you serious? Is he really dead?..."_

_Is he really dead?_

_Is he really dead?_

_Is he head?_

_Harvey is dead_

Mike slowly put the highlighter down, neatly just off to the side (because Harvey once told him his desk was too cluttered and messy and he clearly didn't understand the concept of organised chaos) and rose to stand. The noises, all around him, penetrated slowly – everything and nothing going in. All he knows is that he needs to leave. He needs to find Harvey.

A figure suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking him from leaving his cubicle, but he can't see who because he's blinded by the sudden desperation that rapidly overtook the methodical calmness. He made a move to push past the figure (because he _has _to leave, _needs _to find Harvey) but the figure pushed him back and tried to tell him something. Mike could see the lips moving but couldn't hear the words against the blood rushing through his ears.

The pushing became more insistent and Mike became acutely aware of a frustrated scream – sudden and surprising all the occupants in the room before the figure in front on him gave a little disgruntled yelp and hands fluttered to their face.

Mike took the opportunity to escape. He took the stairs, running faster than his legs should allow, skipping steps all together and barging through the door. He raced through the foyer, dancing out of reach of at least one set of hands.

Barrelling through the main glass doors he skidded to a stop on the concreted stretch of side-walk as panic seized him into frozen shock.

_Harvey's dead_

He saw it immediately – Harvey lying on the floor, a pool of bright read spread out near his head, body lying unmoving amongst chaos. A bewildered, and moving, cyclist and mangled bike lay near him. Mike's first thought is that some bastard had mounted the side-walk and not only struck Harvey but a cyclist too. Only, there's no sign of the car responsible. The dickhead had probably sped off.

Donna and Jessica are both with Harvey and Mike can't but help but stare at the vibrant red of Harvey's blood. He gulped in a shuddering breath as his teeth and lips shuddered with the effort.

_Harvey's dead_

Donna saw him first, on her knees at Harvey's head, eyes zeroing in on him and then widening.

_Harvey's dead_

"Mike?" Donna asked, standing and hurrying to him. Her eyes searched him for answers.

Mike's slow gaze drifted from Harvey to Donna, focus clearly muffled and confused, as her hand reached out to touch his arm. His eyes sluggishly moved down to follow her fingers. She had blood on her sleeve. Glancing down briefly he saw that there were some on her shoe too.

_Harvey's dead and Donna has blood on her shoes_

He must have said something because Donna gave him a confused look and squeezed his arm.

"Mike?"

"Harvey's dead," he stated numbly. He stared ahead, aware of her full on scrutiny.

"What?" Donna blanched, glancing back once, and then looking at him with a comical even wider eyed look than before. It wasn't her usual eye-brow rise he'd been accustomed to, but death did that; wiped out prefixes and the norm and left devastation and a blank new canvas in its place. "No, he's not, sweetie. He's just a little hurt. Nothing that can't be patched up."

"Harvey's dead," Mike repeated with a little half-sob not hearing a word she'd said.

"No. He's. Not," Donna repeated, voice stronger and more insistent. She tried to empathise the point by cupping his face between her hands. It only resulted in a compulsive flinch because she _still _has Harvey's blood on her sleeve. He doesn't want that. He doesn't want to be that close to death. That close to Harvey's snuffed out life.

Donna released him just as quickly and Mike fell into a litany of _Harvey's dead_'s. Clearly this alarmed Donna more than then fact that Harvey Specter is freaking dead and she has his blood on her.

"Donna!" Jessica called from where she was still with the two felled men. "I need you to chase the ambulance. They're taking too long."

Mike stuttered half-way through the litany, wondering why the hell they were even bothering with an ambulance. Mike finally decided it must be for the cyclist, who's wailing and flailing about, and complaining about his leg. Mike's too far away to see all his injuries but he recognised bones sticking out of legs when he saw one.

"Okay... okay..." Donna hesitated before she squeezed both his arms. "Mike, you need to stay here, okay. Don't go anywhere. I need to help Jessica."

Mike didn't respond. He picked up on his litany from before as though he never stopped.

He felt a presence fall into step by him. He didn't move to acknowledge the person, expecting the grim reaper to merrily take-over. Instead Donna announced the presence name with a relieved "Louis," which was just as bad.

"What...?"

"Mike thinks Harvey's dead," Donna informed him and then as if to clarify added - "He's not."

"Harvey's dead," Mike informed him quietly and numbly because someone had to set him straight.

"Oh," Louis said, head nodding at Donna before looking at Mike weirdly. "Kind of explains the ruckus that happened upstairs."

Donna has already backed off, phone in her hand, waving at Mike and shooting Louis with some significant look. "I need to go help. Look after him."

"What?" Louis exclaimed in an alarmed voice but Donna had already disappeared. "No... I don't think... Oh. Okay."

Mike's still staring out in front of him, not seeing Jessica moving her lips in the direction of someone who was not Donna or the slight twitch of movements that Harvey was making.

Mike felt that the world, the entire universe, of glass skyscrapers and the world he knew, stretched and elongated out and he felt like he was being swallowed up, dragged in to the black hole that was forming. He felt so small amongst it.

_So so so small_

And he wouldn't have Harvey to make him feel better.

He wouldn't have Harvey's lap to crawl on to.

He wouldn't have Harvey to cling to.

The only reassurance that he hadn't regressed completely was the tightness of the suit that fitted just right against his skin. This was one that Harvey had actually picked out for him.

"Harvey's dead," Mike repeated with another half sob. He felt his hands curl and dig into his pants.

"Oh. Okay," Louis repeated with the same alarmed tone from before. He felt a hand on his shoulder as he was slowly peeled away from the scene in front of him. "Harvey's not actually dead, you know. He's too stubborn for that. Uh... why don't we come sit over here for a bit."

He knew Louis was only trying to make him feel better. Probably because he was scared of what Donna might do to him if he didn't, so he just shook his head at him with a bitter laugh.

Louis shuffled him through a throng of people, gawkers who'd come to see the carnage, and deposited him against a small raised ledge of a side-wall of the firm. Mike immediately leant forward and raised his legs to his chest in a rocking motion, burying his face, and the wetness of his cheeks, into them. He felt Louis' arm come up to rest half around his shoulder in a awkward attempt of reassurance. It wasn't anywhere near Harvey's heartfelt arm slung around his shoulders with Mike pressed into his warm side but it was, surprisingly, close.

He should thank Louis later.

He twisted the material of his pants further, another choked sob fluttering out between them and heard Louis murmur to him, asking him if he wanted anything.

It was Harvey he wanted. Harvey that he _needed._

All he can say instead is "Harvey Bear."

xxx

When Harvey woke up it's to a absolutely cracking headache.

From what he can tell it's early evening.

He knew he had a hell of a concussion – the pain is evident enough – but most of it came from recalling what the doctor had said earlier. He'd been out for about ten minutes and had been lucky according to the doctor who'd examined him. No skull fractures, bleeding on the brain or swelling. Being struck by a speeding cyclist, on a damn side-walk no less, could have been so much worse.

He'd had to endure an endless repetition of a nurse and occasional doctor coming to check on him every ten minutes to assess his awareness. They appeared more happy with his progress each time.

His main concern though had been where the hell his assistant had gone. She'd come with him to the hospital, stayed with him for the first hour until she took a mysterious call and had then disappeared on him. Harvey didn't have a clue what time that was but he was pretty sure it was _too _long ago.

The second thing he noticed, which probably should have been the first, was that he had a sleeping associate folded up on the wide but cramped window ledge. The kid looked pale and in a deep sleep. He appeared to be clutching something familiar.

Sleep mussed and concussed brain stared at it for a few seconds before he realised it was Mike's 'Harvey Bear'.

The door to his room opened suddenly and Donna strolled in with a paper and coffee in her hands.

"Oh good, you're awake," she stated, a genuine beam wiping across her face.

"Why does my associate have a Harvey Bear?"

Donna tilted her head at him quizzically and then laughed.

"Seriously, Donna," Harvey warned her, ignoring the buzzing headache around the back of his ears. "Why. Does. He. Have. A. Harvey. Bear?"

"I wish I had recorded that," Donna laughed. She placed the coffee on the table and eyed him to say _mine, not yours _before swiping at her eyes.

"Donna-"

"Some idiot told him you were dead."

"What?" Harvey asked, horrified. He knew what implications that must have had for Mike. The kid must have been terrified. "He knew that I wasn't, right."

"Yeah... about that..." Donna started to say. She dropped the paper on to the end of the bed.

"Someone told him I wasn't, right?" Harvey asked in clarification.

"Of course," Donna nodded fast. "But he had worked himself up. You know how gets when he's upset, Harvey. Particularly lately... The blood didn't exactly help either, plus the fact you were unconscious for most of it.

"God," Harvey muttered, dropping his head back down on the pillow and closing his eyes. "Shit."

"Apparently, Mike heard while he was at his cubicle. According to Louis he freaked out and punched one of the other associates in the face."

"That Durant guy, I hope," Harvey asked, opening one eye to look at her.

"Actually, no." Donna said, her face brightening even more with mischief. "Which is a shame. It was the blonde, Harold. He could see Mike was freaking out and tried to stop him from leaving. Got a pop to the nose for his troubles. The kid's a scrapper, that's for sure."

"Oh," Harvey said with a surprised tone. "Mike has friends?"

"I wouldn't call them friends, but he's definitely one of the nicer ones."

"This doesn't explain why he has a Harvey Bear," Harvey pointed out matter of factly.

"You know," Donna said, nose crinkling in amusement. "I don't know if it's disturbing or adorably cute that you call it a 'Harvey Bear' too."

"Donna-" Harvey said, anger building. He pushed up further on the bed. "If you don't tell me right now, I'll get out of bed and get the kid to tell me himself."

"Don't you dare," Donna warned him, a familiar flare of anger erupting across her face. "You, Harvey Specter, have a concussion – which could have been so much worse – and that kid needs to sleep."

"So tell me," he growled at her.

"He was in shock," Donna said with a shrug. "He thought you were dead. He got a bit hysterical and he... he..."

"and he what?"

"He... seemed a little... regressed," Donna said with a non-committal shrug. "Acting younger than he was. He even let Louis hug him."

"Louis hugged Mike?" Harvey asked, momentarily stricken by the thought. "And it helped?"

"Yes, actually. He's not completely heartless, Harvey. He called me when I was waiting with you. Mike was muttering about his 'Harvey Bear'. Louis didn't have a clue what he was on about. I think he thought that's what Mike called you when he was a kid or something. Anyway, I left to go and find it and then met up with them here. It was the only thing that seemed to calm him."

Harvey didn't respond to Donna's proclamation and started to move around on the bed.

"Harvey?" Donna asked, a new level to her warning tone ebbing in and mingling with weariness. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to take the kid back to Anna-" Harvey informed her ,surprised by the worry and anger lacing his voice. He ripped back the covers and determinedly swung his legs and planted them on the floor.

"Don't be silly. It was shock, probably nothing more than PTSD. The kid probably flashed to when his parents died or when you collapsed at your place."

"Maybe," Harvey agreed, "But I'm not letting anything else happen to the kid."

He took all of one step before his vision blinked out and the room swam around him. He closed his eyes to fight off the nausea that naturally had to follow. When he opened them he was sat back on the bed and Donna was nonchalantly flicking through the paper as though nothing had happened.

"I made an appointment," Donna told him quietly. She didn't look up once. He figured he'd scared her by the fierce way she was ripping though the pages. "Tomorrow at 2 pm. The doctor said if everything was okay he'll discharge you in the morning. I'll take him if you can't go – besides it would give me a chance to meet the bitch who's responsible."

"Thanks," Harvey told her gratefully.

He really hoped, for Anna's Green sake, that he would be able to go. He didn't think she'd survive it if he didn't.

xxx

Harvey slept for a bit more and when he awoke for a second time, Mike was still asleep.

By Harvey's calculation, and from what Donna had told him, the kid had been asleep for well over four hours.

Mike awoke around half an hour later while Harvey was lazily reading Donna's discarded paper. He watched as Mike stretched out the kinks in his body and gave a jaw-popping yawn.

"Hey," Harvey said quietly.

Mike froze, half-way through rolling his shoulders out, and turned quickly to look at him.

"You're awake," Mike breathed and jumped from the ledge. He rushed forward and then stilled half-way as though he was really trying to resist from throwing himself at him.

"So are you," Harvey commented and then glanced down at Mike's hand that was still clutching at the toy.

"Oh," Mike mumbled, glancing down at it with a flush to his face. He dropped it immediately (Harvey would make sure to retrieve it later) and then looked up at him with watering eyes and wobbly lips. "I thought you were dead."

"I know," Harvey told him and then pushed the paper aside. He shuffled over slightly and patted the area beside him. "Want to join me?"

Mike's nod was quick and urgent and Harvey could see the kid was close to tears. He patted once more and then the restraint was gone and Mike practically bounded on to the bed and pressed his body into the side of Harvey.

"I thought you were dead," Mike repeated, burying his face into Harvey's side. Harvey tightened his arm around Mike's shoulder and pulled him close. He could feel the shudder between them.

"I know," Harvey said again.

"I was so scared Harvey. I thought you were gone. I thought I was alone again."

"I'm sorry," Harvey muttered, pressing a kiss down on to the top of Mike's messy hair. "That's not going to happen. I promise."

"Kay," Mike murmured back. He seemed to press his body tighter against his body. If it wasn't for the fact that he could see that associate pressed to his side was an adult in body, he could have sworn the arm that swept up and hooked over him, tightening with a possessive possession, felt so much smaller than what it was.

"I'm not going anywhere, Mike."

xxx

_tbc_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **sick!mike alert. I'm giving him Mono – which is Glandular Fever to us Brits. I may be a mental health nurse, but shockingly, we get minimal training in actual physical health, so inaccuracies may occur. Borrowed Dr Wyatt from Crayon's and made ference to H.B. and potties.

Also; I am making Donna slightly obsessed with Maxwell Caulfied – inspired by Phoenixoncloudnine's **Razzle Dazzle** – and this quote:

**Maxwell Caulfied** – _'Before Grease 2, I was called the next Richard Gere, then after Grease 2, nobody would touch me.'_

Extract lyrics from _'No light, no light' (Florence and the Machine) '_cause this song perfectly captures Harvey's turmoil at being scared of losing Mike but not knowing how to do something about it. Silly Harvey, stop resisting and snuggle!

Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimers apply (see previous chapter)

**Chapter 6**

_You are the hole in my head_

_You are the space in my bed_

_You are the silence in between_

_What I thought and what I said_

_You are the night-time fear_

_You are the morning when it's clear_

_When it's over, you're the start_

_You are my head and heart_

xxx

Harvey stared at the untouched pile of files on his desk.

"Where's Mike?" Harvey asked Donna in a frustrated tone. "I asked you to call him ages ago. These files wont proof themselves."

Donna eyed him from her desk and instead of replying through the intercom, she rose from her desk. Her eyes locked on him as though she was tracking a prey and he straightened a little.

"Harvey," Donna practically growled at him, coming to a stop once inside his office. She placed her hands either side of her hips. Harvey smirked slightly which only caused her to fume a little more. "Two of the associates are out sick. The kid's swamped."

Harvey leant back in his chair and grimaced.

"So he's doing Louis' work instead of mine?"

Donna rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air.

"What?" Harvey asked.

"Don't 'what' me, Harvey-" Donna reprimanded him. She strode forward quickly and leant over his desk, immaculate hands planted across it, red hair bouncing angrily with her. Harvey was taken by surprise by the sudden move and he went on the defensive, flinching backwards. "I know Mike is _your _associate, but he also has to answer to Louis and at the moment the bull-pen is chaos. It's not just Mike – all of the associates are working their asses off."

Harvey discreetly tried to roll his chair backwards.

"Uh... what are they out with?" Harvey tried, stepping sideways out of the chair.

Donna straightened and smoothed her hair down.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Does it matter?"

"Not really," Harvey turned and smiled at her. "Just trying a diversion."

Donna's mouth quirked as she flicked her hair over her shoulder.

"I could take you down so easily," she told him slowly. If he hadn't known her for the length of time he had he might actually find it mouth watering.

He startled himself with the sudden thought, fearing mental scarring. This was Donna he was talking about.

"I still have files that need to be proofed," Harvey said sorrowfully, looking at the pile.

Donna looked at the pile and then looked back at Harvey. She tilted her head and smiled.

_Hell, no..._

xxx

Harvey, instead, went to see Louis.

He went hoping to make Louis see sense and convince him to free Mike from any misguided Louis-Servitude. Instead he found a Louis Litt furiously writing and high-lighting through a file. A pile of files laid next to him.

"What you doing?" Harvey asked, hands in his pockets and making a show of trying to faux up-side down read whatever Louis was scribbling on the note pad next to him. "A love letter to your wife?"

Louis stalled writing and turned a harried look on Harvey.

"As you may have noticed, Harvey-" Louis said, clearly frustrated and flustered. "The associate area has become a cesspool-pool of germs. I have two out and I just had to send a third home. And I have a work load that's twice that."

Louis stood and paced a little, rubbing his hand over his small balding head. There was evidence of sweaty shininess to it.

"So spread it evenly across the rest of the associates," Harvey tried to reason, choosing to ignore Donna's earlier insight. Mike was _his _and his alone. "I hardly think it's fair for-"

"What do you think I've been doing?" Louis snapped at him. He whirled around to face him, throwing his pen on to his desk and Harvey's face registered shock at Louis lack of conniving and smugness. This had nothing to do with taking Mike. "I can only give them so much and yes, _Harvey_, I am aware that Mike has to do _your _work too. Just for some ungodly reason I have a SHITLOAD OF FILES TO BE BRIEFED AND PROOFED AND-"

"Okay," Harvey said. He kept his voice mocking though, because he couldn't let Louis think for even a millisecond that he was letting him have this one, and put his hands up in mock-defeat. "Jeez-Louiiiis. Don't get your panties in a twist. I was just wondering what the drama was. Clearly it's right here in your office."

Louis rolled his eyes and picked a file up, waving it in Harvey's face.

"Mock all you want Harvey," Louis said, pushing Harvey back a little with his free hand and heading back towards his desk. "Just take it out of my office. I have to get back to work. These files wont proof themselves."

Louis slapped the file down on the desk as though it was the most offending thing he'd ever touched in his life.

Harvey was dumbfounded for all of five seconds.

"You're proofing it _yourself_?" Harvey asked dumbly.

"Duh, _yes_, what did you think I was doing?" Louis said as though he was talking to the slowest person on the planet. "Writing a love letter to _your _wife?"

Harvey grinned at that and pointed at Louis. "See, that would be funny if I even had-"

"Get out, Harvey."

Harvey kept the grin in place and saluted Louis before abruptly turning on his heel. He couldn't help but think Louis might have actually put him to shame this time.

"These germ-infested associates are a royal pain in my ass," he heard Louis grumble to himself.

Harvey shook his head and smirked.

xxx

_No light, no light_

_In your bright blue eyes_

_I never knew daylight could be so violent_

_A revelation in the light of day_

_You can't choose what stays and what fades away_

_And I'll do anything to make you stay_

_No light, no light_

_Tell me what you want me to say_

Harvey's halfway through a phone conversation with Max Caulfied when Donna's voice cut through the line.

"Sorry. Harvey has to go, Mr Caulfied. We have a emergency. I'll ring you with a face to face appointment. We'll send Harvey's personal driver to make up for it."

Harvey locked his eyes with Donna who eyed him back equally as hard.

"What the hell was that? Harvey growled at her. "That was MAX CAULFIED! Do you know-"

"The only reason you're pissed is because he has a bigger collection of baseballs then you and he has some very rare ones you'd very happily take off his hands. And that would be much more convincing if you had a face to face in your office. Don't you think?"

"Donna-" Harvey started to warn.

"_Please_, Harvey-" Donna cut him off. "It's not like he's _THE _Maxwell Caulfied. Then I'd be 'colour me impressed'."

Donna fanned her face and puckered her lips.

"Right," Harvey snorted and rolled his eyes. "Which is why you were so traumatised after seeing 'Grease 2'.

Donna shuddered at the memory and then shrugged. "You should know by now, Harvey, that I don't measure a movie by how good it is. My standards are much lower than that. He might not be a Travolta but he's still a legend."

Harvey smirked and raised his hands questionably.

"Remind me what he's in again?"

Donna smiled and shook her head. "You have baseballs. I have Maxwell Caulfied."

"And I rest my case," Harvey said with a little bow.

"BBC America are showing Casualty re-runs," Donna said quickly. "And my cousin sent me copies of Emmerdale. This probably means nothing to you and your sheltered life. He's been in over 60 movies and TV productions and was listed as one of twelve promising actors in 1985-"

"Why do you know so much about Maxwell Caulfied?"

"He's pretty," Donna offered, face serious. "He could have been the next Richard Gere. I blame Grease 2-"

Harvey waved at her to stop.

"I'd _adore _to listen to Maxwell Caulfied credentials," Harvey reminded her sarcastically. "But you did just hang up on my rather more mundane client. What's the emergency?"

"Mike's sick."

Harvey stirred at the words.

"Sick how?"

"Does it matter?" Donna snapped at him, all traces of humor gone. "Your kid's sick."

"He's not my kid, Donna-" Harvey groused at her, anger rising. "Technically he was never my kid."

"Harvey-" Donna started and then the intercom suddenly went quiet and he wondered briefly if she had decided to drop the subject.

Instead she stood from her desk and walked firmly in through the office door. She didn't move with the anger she did from the day before. In fact she looked hurt and raised her arms in the air in bewilderment, shaking her head. "I don't get you."

"Mike's fine," Harvey said trying to convince himself. Donna glared and he looked away to the open file in front of him. He felt Donna's eyes burn into the top of his head. "If he wasn't, he 'd be in here whining for attention and being a perpetual pain in my side."

"Regular Mike, sure," Donna reasoned and Harvey glanced at her just to see her move and pace a little. She threw him a look that he guessed was supposed to give him a militude of insight. "Teen Mike goes all silent and brooding, gets all pissy, acts out in such a way that what he really means is _'daddy, I feel sick. Make me better.' _Teen Mike runs off and gets drunk and then weeps in your arms-"

Harvey held his hand up and waved in exasperation. What was with all the dramatics. First Louis, now Donna.

"Okay, okay, I get it-" Harvey sighed. "But you're forgetting Anna said Mike's blood results were all clear."

Donna looked as though she wanted to kick him and the way she was eyeing his perfectly coiffed hair, it might very well be in the head.

"No," Donna said, voice sounding as though she might follow through on the motion. She folded her arms. "What she actually said was that his hormone levels were decreasing – that eventually they will get back to a normal level – and that it didn't explain the regression. She indicated it was most probably PTSD. Which I probably shouldn't get started on either, Harvey, 'cause that's another ball game..."

"Like it's her speciality," Harvey scoffed. No, Anna Green's speciality was being a mad professor and turning his associate into an adorable toddler in a misguided attempt at trying to keep the memories of her dead son alive.

"I think her scientific qualifications say otherwise."

A feeling of guilt washed over him - not just because Mike might be sick – but because he should had seen this coming. It was nearly two weeks ago though and Mike had been fine.

"She said he had some atypical white blood cells," Harvey said quietly.

"She said WHAT?" Donna nearly roared into his face... and there's the red fiery phoenix he knew. "Wait, what does that mean?"

"That he might have had an infection?" Harvey shrugged. "I asked her to look into it, but she said that she was a scientist, not a doctor. Mike wasn't showing any symptoms though and the test was over two weeks ago..."

"I take it back. She's useless," Donna huffed. "She works with animals. I should report her to ASPCA. And you..."

Donna paced again and waved her hand around at him.

"I don't get you," she repeated. "First you act like a daddy with separation anxiety, then you push Mike away until you're terrified something might happen to him. I saw you at the hospital, Harvey-" Donna stalled, voice softening, eyes pitying. It was like they had kick-started their conversation from three weeks ago, back on his balcony. "That was unconditional. How could you go from something so intimate to being so detached again. It's not just you though."

"It's not?" Harvey asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Donna shook her head and dropped heavily into the couch, head falling into her palm tiredly.

"Mike's exactly the same, just easier to read. But when it comes to it, you're just both a bundle of mixed signals. Do you have to be run over again?"

"I wasn't run over," Harvey huffed. "I was struck by a cyclist."

"Same thing," Donna reminded him with a roll of the eyes. She stood up and stared at him. "Go check on him."

"I would!" Harvey snapped at her. He shoved at the file in front of him. Donna eyes widened in surprise. "But Mike's swamped, remember? And Louis has become a bleeding heart and taken it upon himself to proof files himself which means _I _have no choice but to take it and proof my own files until all this shit calms down."

Donna smirked at him.

"Finished?" she asked after a stretch of silence. Harvey pulled the file back, smoothing it out under his palm and nodded. "Now go check on your associate."

Harvey can't move under Donna's stare. Scratch that, he wont move under her stare. He'll move when he's ready.

"What are you scared of , Harvey?"

He blinked at her in surprise.

"I'm not s-"

"You were an awesome dad," Donna said, affectively cutting him off mid-sentence, the words reverberating though him. They bounced around his his head and his heart clenched at what she was actually saying. _Shit, he missed the kid. _"You kept him alive. You fed him, you clothed him, you cleaned his puke up, you held him when he cried, you put pull-ups on him-"

"That was mostly Mike," Harvey told her. He was overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of memories. That small blonde moppet and startling blue eyes clambering over him and sitting on his lap, snuggling close, clutching tight. It had felt so right, so normal and in hindsight Harvey should have held on tighter, should have relished the moment longer, because he hadn't realised how significant it would be to him now.

"Sorry," Donna suddenly told him as though she had only just realised how tightly controlled and on edge he really was. "You still have your moments, Harvey. Just there's room for improvement."

"Yes, Marm," Harvey told her with a small grin.

"Go check on your associate," Donna said seriously, trying not to grin. "Or I'll burn your balls."

She turned and flicked her hair over her shoulder.

He waited until she was stood at her desk, her back to him, before he stood and headed out of the office.

"That worked, huh?" Donna asked, her back still to him. He could hear the gloating to her voice. "Or is it actual concern?"

"Shut it..." Harvey murmured, heading off to find his associate, a small smile forming at the edge of his mouth.

xxx

_To the crowd I was crying out and_

_In your place there were a thousand other faces_

_I was disappearing in plain sight_

_Heaven help me, I need to make it right_

Mike feels like crap.

He's felt off for the last few days, but he'd put it down to the fact that he, along with the remainder of the associates not currently out sick, had been working all hours to keep up with the countless stream of files that had been sailing through. He'd managed one all nighter – leaving him practically comatose under a desk (again) until Rachel had jostled him awake (again).

He presumed that the all nighter was the main reason he'd been left with a bone aching tiredness that encompassed his entire being. Every move put off until it was inevitable, even the prospect of moving to the break room for much needed coffee seemed a mental step too far. It was times like this he wished he had a Donna. The last time he'd dragged himself away from his desk for a caffeine fix he had dragged his feet, shuffling like a old man and groaning tiredly. He must have come across as somewhat bad because Harold had smiled sympathetically and offered to get him a coffee the next time he had made a break for it.

Now, falling into the fourth day of The Associate Apocalypse – which is what had been commonly agreed amongst the few still standing – he had started to develop a chill that only provoked the jabbing and angry joints. On top of that he now had a ravaging sore throat that even burned when he breathed in. It was the reason why the sandwich that Harold had kindly brought him lay almost untouched – abandoned after the first bite – throat screaming and flailing around with what felt like sharp little pointy tipped objects.

He shivered again, pulling at his jacket around him to starve off the chills suddenly overtaking his frame, and coughed dryly, feeling the muscles in his neck pull and stretch painfully.

Afterwards he expected his head must have lowered, because time seemed to slow and the desk appeared all too inviting.

"Are you sick?"

Mike's head shot up and he gasped in surprise. Harvey loomed over the cubicle wall with a frown. He clutched at his small bundle of highlighters tightly.

"No?" Mike said and instantly hated how his voice sounded unsure. He tried to clear his throat because of all the times Harvey should come check on him, it would have to be when his throat was doing it's best impression of the croakiest frog in the world. He had to cough and gurgle his way through contorted words until it finally dislodged but in doing so the pain intensified and his eyes watered from the discomfort. He tried again more firmly "No."

Harvey rolled his eyes and planted a cool hand against his forehead. It was so unexpected that Mike ended up sputtering through his shock, one hand instantly rubbing at his screaming throat, the other attempting to batter Harvey's hand away. Harvey instantly caught his flailing hand with his own and kept him still with burning eyes.

"What are you doing?" Mike hissed at him. "People are watching?"

There had been a chorus of audible gasps and sniggers at Harvey's uncharacteristic public touching. Mike, on any normal day, would have relished the gesture but this wasn't a normal day. This was Mike Ross Is Still A Teenager Day or as he sometimes still mentally referred to it – This Is Mike Ross Who Was Recently A Toddler Day. Mike was still having some adjustment problems. He was absolutely positive Harvey was having them too and hadn't missed the way Donna would discreetly pull Harvey away for a 'private' chat that he infinitely knew was about him. His adjustment problems was not being helped by the mocking he was receiving from a select few associates who loved to play cruel mind games with the associate, who was until a few months ago affectively still wearing pull-ups and talking with a lisp. Kyle seemed to be the ring-leader, but he had been out for the last two days with whatever deathly sickness was wiping them out. Having Harvey going all paternal on him in the middle of the bull-pen wouldn't help matters and he was sure that this faux-pas would get back to Kyle eventually.

"You're warm," Harvey said, ignoring his obvious distress. "As in too warm."

"I'm fine, Harvey-" Mike groused at him, knowing he sounded all of three again. "Leave me alone."

Harvey pulled his hand back and leant on the cubicle wall. Mike sighed in relief.

"Do I have to take your highlighters again?" Harvey asked, eyes widening.

Mike clutched the highlighters tightly to him in alarm.

"That was a one-time thing," Mike complained, voice sounding too whiny to his own ears. He was so glad that Kyle wasn't around to hear it. "I can't exactly have H.B around here."

"I already told you," Harvey tried to reason. "You can leave him in my office."

Mike doesn't want to get into this with Harvey, now, in the middle of the open office, with all too eager ears. He doesn't want to say he's too old for a bear, he doesn't want to feel like he _needs _H.B, or Harvey, for that matter – but he does. Instead he stayed rooted to his own card-board of a box, ignored the urge to go to the older man, to the confines of his office, to the spot that he always takes on the couch. And frustratingly, he doesn't know _WHY. _After Harvey's accident, when Harvey had invited him to join him on the bed and he'd clambered up and glued himself to the older man's side, they'd fitted together like two missing pieces. But then things changed again – Mike's innate shock and fear wore off, leaving him floundering in awkwardness, and Harvey's walls went back up leaving Mike confused and found wanting. So as soon as Mike's grounding had been completed and he'd made sure Harvey didn't have any bleeding on the brain, he fled back to his apartment and filled his time with work. Of course, Harvey still kept him on a leash when it came to how much he did, only this last week with decreased subordinates, Mike had managed to slip through the net.

"I'm fine, Harvey-" Mike tried to reason, aware the ever reliable frog was back. He dared gulp a few times to test it out but each felt like barbed wire had wound its way around his throat. "I need to get back to work."

"Your voice sounds like a cheese grater," Harvey observed. He stood a little straighter and frowned.

"That doesn't even make sense-" Mike tried to point out but the argument fell flat as his words choked off and a dry cough took over.

"Your voice doesn't make sense," Harvey told him. He hooked a hand around his elbow and tugged, giving Mike no choice but to rise too. "C'mon. Come with me."

Harvey was gentler than Mike anticipated, but the sudden rise caused the ache to his stomach to spike and between the pain from his throat and the surprise dizzying headache (_hello) _there was just enough room for nausea too.

"Oh," he said, hand going to rub his stomach. "Ouch. That hurts."

"What?" Harvey frowned again, turning to look at him. Mike was, still, acutely aware of the audience watching him. "Tell me what hurts?"

Mike's torn between laughing in Harvey's face and screaming in frustration.

"Nothing," Mike said quietly. Too quietly by the way Harvey is looking at him. Mike rubbed at his belly again. "My stomach hurts a little. That's all."

"I know that face. Just don't puke until you get back to the office, okay."

Mike smirked and managed a brief wave at Donna on the way past. "He gave me permission to puke in his office."

"I did not."

"You did too-" Mike managed to get out before quickly grabbing the chrome bin that Harvey majestically placed in front of his face. He ended up dry-heaving, nothing coming up. It did nothing to help his throat though.

"Oh, god," he groaned pathetically, from the couch. "My throat. It's killing me."

Harvey chose to sit on a seat facing the couch.

"First you said you were fine," Harvey reminded him smugly, folding and stretching his legs out in front of him. "Now you're not. What changed?"

"The wonders of parental attention," Donna observed, entering the office. She held a thermometer up in her hands.

"I thought they were supposed to make you feel better," Mike groused, eyeing the thermometer and then Donna.

Donna just smiled and glanced at Harvey. Mike didn't miss the way they tried to communicate with eyes only. Finally, Harvey seemed to lose whatever silent battle he was having with his assistant, and nodded, taking the thermometer from her.

It didn't go unnoticed by any of the occupants of the room that neither Mike nor Harvey had argued that they weren't in fact father and son.

xxx

Donna had left to grill Louis on the cause of the other associates illnesses, concerned that Mike might have meningitis (he had a stiff neck and had developed an aversion to light). Harvey also suspected she wanted to leave them alone. She had this expectation that was alien to Harvey... well the concept anyway. He knew from the brief time Mike had spent as a toddler that he was _capable _of being and fulfilling the role that Mike obviously needed. They just needed to navigate through their own issues – denial and awkwardness, pride and misplaced shame. However, Donna's sudden departure did nothing to help the sudden fear and panic that Mike might actually be seriously unwell.

Mike had planted himself down across Harvey's couch, wet paper towel across his pale face, and compliantly allowed Harvey to take his temperature, going limp and morose as he placed it in his ear. When it beeped Harvey pulled it back to look at the display.

102 F

Harvey frowned. It wasn't dangerously high but it was still too high for his own liking.

"Am I dying yet?" Mike asked from the couch. Harvey glanced down to see Mike had pulled the wet towel to reveal one eye blinking at him.

"You've had worse," Harvey reminded him, thinking back to when Mike was sick as a toddler. He had a lower temperature then, but if the kid had the temperature he does now back then, Harvey was sure it would have killed him. The thought filled him with a seizing terror and it took Mike blinking and shivering against him to bring him back to reality. He shook his head and grinned. "Kind of."

"Oh, good to know," Mike mumbled, eye drifting shut, enabling Harvey enough time to stare at the kid without fear of the repercussions.

Donna made her reappearance then in a whirlwind of rage.

"I don't believe it!" she raged, stomping back into the office. "Mono! They've got Mono!"

Harvey jumped at little because Donna was on another level of angry Donnas'. Mike's eyes flew open too, his body flinching at her tone, hand grasping the edge of the couch and digging in.

"Donna-" Harvey warned, hand instantly going to Mike's arm. "Inside voice."

"Sorry... sorry," she whispered, throwing a apologetic grimace in Mike's direction. Mike shrugged and waved her off and rolled away from Harvey's touch so that he had his back to Harvey. "You'd think that he would have realised. I mean, three people out with it and what with Mike's '_condition'_," Donna paused, mouthing the last word, so as not to upset the younger man. "He should have said something. Mono! Harvey!"

"Donna," Harvey tried – he was never going to be Louis best friend, but even he knew it was hardly his fault. "This isn't Louis fault. He must have been exposed anywhere between 4-6 weeks ago. Mike would have got it anyway. The chance was probably higher what with all the changes and his current..." Harvey rolls to a stop, stopping short from actually saying 'condition.' "At least it isn't meningitis."

"I'm still in the room, you know," mike coughed tiredly.

"Sorry, sweetie," Donna said smoothly, dropping anger for perfectly executed maternalness . She moved around the back of the couch and dropped her hand on his shoulder. "You feel really poorly, don't you?"

Mike lifted his head, looking miserable with wounded puppy-dog eyes, and nodded.

"Poor thing," Donna cooed down at him and rubbed at his shoulder as though she was talking to a small child. Harvey rolled his eyes. "Well, I suppose it fits. He has all the symptoms."

Harvey nodded in agreement, still stung by Mike's earlier reaction. He impulsively placed his hand against the side of the kid's neck. Mike startled at the touch.

"Easy, kid," Harvey soothed. He tested his fingers against the obvious swelling, pressing with his hand. Mike whined and squirmed against it until Harvey released some of the pressure. He kept his hand there, fingers gently touching warm skin and Mike sighed his apparent content. "He's definitely got some swollen glands."

"Hurts," Mike muttered under his hand.

"I know. Sorry," Harvey offered. He brushed his thumb over Mike's skin – Harvey was unsure if it was this motion or the chills trembling through his body, but Mike shuddered against it.

Donna moved off again and made a telephone signal with her hand.

Harvey nodded in response, staring back down at the kid in front of him.

"You're still touching me, you know?" Mike reminded him, smiling dopily despite feeling under the weather.

Harvey smirked again. It was only half an hour ago that the kid had shied away from any intimacy in public, but here, in the safe confines of the office the kid practically melted into it.

"I know."

xxx

Donna managed to get an appointment for Mike that afternoon and swiftly went around rearranging Harvey's meetings.

"You're out for the rest of the day," Donna told Harvey. "Ray's picking you up in ten, the appointment is in forty-five minutes."

Harvey didn't argue with her. In fact, right at this moment, nothing would let him move from Mike's side. He knew Donna was right – he was giving the kid mixed signals. At times he wanted to run and hide and wait everything out till Mike was just plain and old and regular. He could shut down and dampen everything so that it didn't feel of _anything_. But there were other times, like when the kid had run off, or when he'd woken up to find Mike clutching his Harvey Bear, or now, when he was clearly sick and miserable and Harvey's fear of losing something that he wasn't sure he'd even had in the first place made him blind to the kid's needs.

It wasn't until he was outside the medical practice he realised where she had actually made the appointment.

"Donna," Harvey said into the phone, glancing at Mike who had plastered his face against the cool glass of the window. "You do realise Dr Wyatt is a paediatrician?"

"I know, Harvey-" Donna chided him. "But he was the only one with a slot available. And I asked for a favour. Also, I thought, he was probably the best equipped considering how Mike is... you know..."

Harvey thought about it and had to agree. It was quite a genius idea.

Getting Mike out of the car was a personal feat for Harvey. Mike had lost all patience and compliance and griped and groused all the way to the third floor.

"I don't want to," Mike complained. "Can't we just go home."

Harvey felt his heart tug again. Mike seemed to always be like this whenever his vulnerability was threatened and exposed and Harvey wasn't entirely sure if he meant his apartment or Harvey's condo.

"No," Harvey told him. Once the elevator stopped at their floor Mike tried to walk off to the left where there was a arrow pointing to the stairs and and a exit sign. Harvey sighed and grabbed at his arm, stalling his escape and tugging him closer, in the direction of Dr Wyatt's office. "We'll just see the doctor and get some medicine, okay. Then we'll go home."

Despite feeling like death warmed over, Mike managed a lazy eye roll in Harvey's direction. "If this is Mono, there's nothing you can give. You just have to wait it out."

Mike looked a little miserable at the thought of feeling this sick for a length of time and Harvey swung his arm around him to give his shoulder a squeeze.

"Okay, nobody likes a smarty pants Mr Eidetic," Harvey grinned at him.

"I thought it was obvious," Mike griped at him.

Harvey caught the way Mike's eyes drifted down to the hand clasped around his shoulder. They lingered there for a second before he lifted them again and gulped painfully. This time, though, Harvey knew it had nothing to do with the sore throat.

xxx

They had a wait of an hour after the initial examination for the blood results to come back – Wyatt's practice having a rather convenient arrangement with a nearby pathology laboratory. Harvey had to witness a awkward examination that left him rather worried about Mike's smaller frame.

What was the kid eating? Did he even have anything in his fridge? Was he even eating?

"Results are back," Wyatt announced upon his return. "There's definitely some atypical white blood cells-"

"That's what Anna said-" Mike whispered next to Harvey. It might have been his own guilt, or paranoia, but he swore Mike turned accusing eyes on him.

"Shh..." Harvey hushed him, choosing ignorance instead.

"- that indicate it's most probably Mono," Wyatt continued. He scribbled something down on a chart and smiled at Mike. "So have you been playing the kissing game."

Mike looked up, startled at the words, face flushed.

"No!"

Harvey turned an equal look of amusement at him, nudging him, "Have you?"

He asked it in a mock serious tone but Mike looked alarmed at the accusation. "I swear I haven't, Harvey. I mean there was Rachel _and _Jenny, but that was months before I even went to see Ann-"

"Okay," Harvey said quickly, squeezing his arm. "I get it."

Wyatt smiled in amusement and shook his head. "Way too much information. What I was trying to tell you – in a rather poor way – was that you can get it through someone sneezing or coughing or sharing someone's food or drink."

Mike nodded, face still flushed, and looked down at the floor. He brushed at his pants.

"At the moment Mike seems to be having some of the regular symptoms – general malaise, loss of appetite, chills, elevated temperature, swollen glands, some nausea. Your throat and tonsils are pretty red-raw, but these should elevate by the second or third week. There's nothing to indicate an enlarged spleen," Wyatt told them. "The pain you experienced was most probably muscle strain and the nausea you were feeling, but if you have a pain in the shoulder, or sudden increase of abdominal pain, or start to look anaemic, have cool and clammy skin, shortness of breath... anything unusual, you need to go straight to the E.R."

"Got it," Harvey said, jotting each sign down in a small notebook he had stuffed into his breast pocket.

Both Wyatt and Mike give him an odd look.

"I'm not going to prescribe anything. Just take some Tylenol for the pain or discomfort. It should help with the temperature too."

"See," Mike said, a bit too smugly and Wyatt gave a bemused look towards Harvey who shrugged in response.

"You know, Harvey," Wyatt said, gathering the automatic sphygmomanometer machine and cuff to put them away. "I swear that kid you brought here before was called Mike Ross too."

Mike, still looking down, guffawed on a cough.

"Small world," Mike croaked up at them.

"Yeah," Harvey said, trying not to laugh. "Small world."

xxx

Harvey took Mike back to his condo.

The kid didn't complain.

After practically forcing half a bowl of tomato soup down the kid's throat, he had fallen into one of the deepest, bone heavy sleeps he'd ever seen him take.

When Harvey was ready for bed he made his way over to where Mike lay sprawled across the couch.

"C'mon, kid," Harvey murmured down to him. He slid his arm around the comatosed younger man and lifted him slightly. Harvey could tell he had half-stirred at the jostling but the kid still tilted into him. "You need the potty?"

He felt Mike nod against him.

"C'mon then," Harvey urged him, pulling him a bit more. "You're too big to carry."

"Hmm," Mike moaned but blinked his eyes at him.

"That's it kid. C'mon."

They managed to shuffle to the bathroom with no incidences and Harvey left Mike to his own devices. He didn't leave though, instead he remained outside the bathroom door, in case the kid face-planted and ended up with cracked skull to go with the virus.

"You okay? You need any help" Harvey asked when he heard a grunt.

"Nah, I'm fine," he heard croaked and muffled float back through the door.

Harvey leant back on the wall and closed his eyes. He listened to the soft sounds of running water and muffled coughs and surprised himself by how normal it felt.

xxx

_You want a revelation_

_You want to get right_

_I can't have tonight_

_You want a revelation_

_Some kind of resolution_

_You want a revelation_

_Would you leave me_

_If I told you what I'd done?_

_And would you leave me_

_If I told you what I'd become?_

_'Cause it's so easy _

_To say it to a crowd_

_But it's so hard, my love_

_To say it to you out loud_

Harvey's been in bed for what feels like minutes when there's a sound at the door. He'd fallen asleep face-down, pushed into the pillow.

"Harvey."

He turned his face on the pillow, one eye tracking a familiar silhouette in the door frame.

"Harvey," it croaked pathetically at him.

"I thought I left you asleep on the couch," Harvey sighed.

"Can't sleep," Mike whined at him. "And I'm too big for my bed."

_My bed_

Harvey sighed again and rolled away, pulling the covers with him. Mike immediately slid in next to him. He knew, just like his reaction when Mike had run off or when he had found Mike by the side of his bed in the hospital, that they were treading dangerous waters. But something felt different this time. He was taking a positive risk. He just needed to test the waters first-

"Harvey," Mike murmured, rolling into his side, planting a sweaty face against him. Harvey grimaced but pulled his arm out from between them to wrap it around the younger man.

"Hmm?"

"Can we stop this?"

"Stop what?" Harvey asked, tired and confused.

"This," Mike told him, breaths warming his skin. "This pushing and pulling. I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I don't know what you want..." Mike chuckled and Harvey bit down on his own lip hard. "I don't even know what I want. Can we just stop?"

Harvey found it ironic that the kid was choosing right now, mere seconds after being vulnerable and needy, and clambering into his bed, to say what they had both been feeling.

He tightened his hold on the kid and pulled him tighter.

"I'm trying, Mikey. I'm trying."

_No light, no light_

_In your bright blue eyes_

_I never knew daylight could be so violent_

_A revelation in the light of day_

_You can't choose what stays and what fades away_

_And I'll do anything to make you stay_

_No light, no light_

_Tell me what you want me to say_

xxx

_tbc_

**A/N2: **I have no reason, but I just have this mental image that at work Mike has become attached to a particular bunch of highlighters because he's too embarrassed to walk around with H.B. It's like his socially acceptable undercover blanky.

You'll have to wait for the next chapter for the man-size pull-ups! ;D


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: So sorry for the delay. RL caught up with me. Work, an ill grandfather, a potentially ill father (fingers and toes crossed that he's not) and a very ill dog. I hope to have the next chapter up in a week or two.

This is the pull-ups chapter! Phoenix's Halloween chapter is refernced here.

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. See first chapter.

**Chapter 7**

Mike had spent a couple of weeks at Harvey's recovering.

That first night, when Harvey had that slow dawning realisation that it just felt _right – he and Mike_, he had intended to push aside his reservations and pride and tell the kid exactly that, no matter the response. But no sooner than Harvey had this epiphany, Mike seemed to have one of his own. What that actually was, Harvey had no idea, except that it appeared to entail Mike actively avoiding him. The kid had spent most of his time squirrelled away in the spare room, giving him short shrift and telling him he was fine. There were no further episodes of Mike needing to sleep in his bed or confronting him about his true feelings.

In fact, as soon as the doctor had given him the all clear, he'd practically hightailed it back to his apartment.

Harvey had spent most of Mike's first week back trying to talk to him. Mike, for the first time that Harvey had met him, stayed mostly at his cubicle and avoided his office at all costs. If he did have to venture up to him, he'd either leave his offerings at Donna's desk (and he must have looked pitiful for Donna to agree to be a messenger) or reluctantly enter his office when forced or summoned by Harvey himself.

If Harvey even attempted to try and talk about anything remotely personal – and he really never got any further then _'Listen, Mike. We really need to talk-' _before the kid would bolt with a flimsy excuse at being swamped by his or Louis work (which he knew was a lie because Harvey had threatened the future of any potential mini-Louis if he had so much as looked at Mike the wrong way).

By the Thursday of the second week (when Harvey was sure Mike was not only avoiding him but going through some inner turmoil that was evident to all to see thanks his usually over-jubilant demeanour being replaced with a quiet, morose, withdrawn and if not mistaken, a little skittish presence) Harvey found himself snapping – berating himself for letting the kid quietly simmer away on his own – and quite literally at Mike.

"What's going on?" Harvey asked him mid-morning.

"Nothing," Mike said with a confused frown. He had his hands pushed deep into the pockets of his pants and Harvey winced at the sight.

Harvey shook his head at him with a smirk that had none of the mirth they were accustomed to.

"Look, I know you don't want to talk," Harvey tried to reason carefully. "But every time I've tried to-"

"Harvey-" Mike interjected with impatience, shuffling from one foot to another. "I've got nothing to talk about. So if you don't mind, I'll get back to work."

"Hey," Harvey said defensively, holding his hands up between them. "Okay. You don't want to talk about it. That's fine. But something is going on."

Harvey could see the kid setting his jaw, tension winding into place. "And I have no idea if it's what I want to talk to you about or if it's something else, but you're not your usual self and I'm getting a little worried-"

Mike moved his right foot, slightly with more force this time, and Harvey was sure it was a half-hearted attempt at stamping it. "My work's okay, right? That's all that matters, isn't it?"

_No, Mike, it isn't_

"Mike," Harvey sighed. "I know you don't want to talk about us, or whatever else might be bothering you, but I really need to-"

"Well I don't!" Mike snapped at him suddenly. There's anger in his face, but the words strangely seem absent from it, a warning tone tinged with fear.

"See, kid. This is what I'm talking about-" Harvey started to say, rising from his desk.

Mike appeared to startle at this and backed up a few steps.

"We don't need to talk," Mike snarled at him and then shook his head. "I know. I know. It's all perfectly clear now."

"Mike," he tried to soothe. He really didn't want a repeat of the other month.

"Screw you, Harvey," the kid spat out at him and then abruptly turned on his heel and marched out with a determined stride.

Harvey caught the surprised look cross Donna's face as Mike purposely ignored her and disappeared around the corner. He was relived to see that this time he had headed off in the direction of the associate area.

Tiredly, Harvey dropped back down on to his chair, and buried his face into his hands.

"What's going on, Harvey?" Donna suddenly asked from his doorway, ignoring her direct line with him in favour of a face to face confrontation.

"I officially don't have a clue," Harvey told her with a sigh. "I've been trying to talk to him for weeks now."

Donna eyed him with a questionable frown.

"I know what I want," Harvey clarified with a small smile.

Donna looked momentarily elated at this revelation before frowning and folding her arms across her chest.

"You should have had this talk with him months ago, Harvey-" Donna berated him softly. "If you had, you wouldn't be having this problem now."

"I know," he agreed quietly.

"It's all your fault, you know," Donna continued.

"I _know_," Harvey agreed again, a little exasperated.

"Sorry-" Donna smiled, shaking herself. "Just wanted to make sure that I heard you correctly."

"Donna! This isn't funny," he said, stung by her response. His epiphany was sliding away from his finger-tips because of his stupidity and Mike was miserable because of it.

"Am I laughing?" she asked, voice snappish and eyes suddenly blazing. Harvey wasn't normally scared of his assistant but even he, when the red-head set her mouth in a thin line and her eyes shone fiercely, knew when to tread carefully. "I've known you for a long time ,Harvey. Long enough to know that you admit when you've done someone wrong. And what does Harvey Specter do when he realises he's made a mistake?"

"I fix things," Harvey declared, vehemently refusing to refer to himself in the third person.

"So fix it."

xxx

Mike made his way back to his cubicle with trepidation. For the past few weeks he had nothing but grief from his fellow associates. It was little things really. Funny looks. A few odd comments. Jokes about Mike being Harvey's little pet. That in itself wasn't unusual – he'd always had them, what with Harvey specifically picking him out of oblivion and the obvious fact that, for a while at least, Mike had been a fish out of water who didn't know how to file a patent and lost at housing court.

Mike knew that Kyle was mostly to blame and it really hadn't bothered him much. But since the whole mad professor incident everything had got worse. The pranks increased ten-fold; important paperwork conveniently went 'missing', he'd get a dozen miss-dialled calls, messages were lost, his desk items were re-arranged. The comments became more personal, more bitchy.

The staring increased too, Mike was sure of it. He'd look up from his desk and several of his fellow associates would just be openly staring. Mike didn't mention it to anyone because he was pretty sure they, particularly Harvey, would just think it was paranoia and he'd be dragged back to Anne for further tests. He shuddered at the thought.

Today, though, was the tipping point. The point of no return. The point where Mike Ross fought his way back to the the top of the shit that surrounded him.

That was the intention anyway.

He'd already barely been in control of his emotions when he had had snapped and lied to Harvey's face. That had been mere minutes after he'd found a pacifier in his draw for the third day in a row. So, when he finally made his way back to his desk and found a pair of man-size pull ups sitting in the middle of his desk, a little bit of hysterical pandemonium followed.

"Who-" Mike asked, voice catching in his throat as he whipped his head around in a frenzied attempt at zeroing out the culprit. "Who did this?"

Laughter erupted somewhere to his immediate right and he spun with it. Instead of finding a body to go with the laughter, he found staring faces and he froze, breath stilling within him. His throat clenched and he felt something rise up and wedge in there, affectively blocking what little air he had. He'd heard countless people say 'hearts were in their throat'. It was a figure of speech. But he felt his, high up and beating wildly, neck tight and vibrating.

"Who did what, Ross?" Kyle asks, blinking stupidly at him.

Mike let out a shuddering breath and turned rapidly away to find at least several more associates were staring, faces blank. If it weren't for the fact that they weren't identical, Mike would be positive he was in the the village of the damned. In suits.

Whatever had crawled into his throat was allowing some breaths through. But they were too fast. And loud. Right there in his ears. Panicked.

He glanced at the pull-ups, that sat there seemingly innocent but all-together mocking, and had one thought of clarity. Not surprisingly, it was in Harvey's voice.

_You don't just give in and get killed. There's 146 other options._

So he did exactly that.

He chose 145

He ran.

xxx

He ran to the bathroom. Again.

Splashed water over his face and counted out breaths.

Bathrooms were once considered safe. Fortresses of solitude where you could cry or have mini breakdowns in private. Not any more it seemed because the door was suddenly swung open and the muffled laughter from before surrounded him with fierce terror.

They had followed him.

He refused to look up to acknowledge this – facing the basin, water still running, hands on the counter top – and his suspicion was confirmed when the pull-up was thrust in front of his face.

"Leave me alone," he hated how his voice cracked and wavered and sounded so _weak._

"What? You don't like them?"

A quick glance up revealed what he suspected – Kyle Durant, smirking, eyes glinting with murderous joy.

"Just grow up, okay?" Mike challenged, making an effort to strengthen his voice and straighten. "All of you."

"You don't need them?" Kyle asked, perfecting a look of complete genuineness. Mike knew better. "I mean, I heard you had to wear these pretty often. It must have been hard, right? The metamorphosis between child to now. Did you have a few accidents? Does Harvey still make you wear them."

Another guffaw of laughter erupted around them and Mike took a breath and looked around him. There were a few associates who were obviously part of the 'operation pull-ups'. The rest, Mike was sure, had just piled into the bathroom to gawk. His eyes settled on Harold, at the back, who looked completely horrified.

"Kyle, stop," Harold said feebly. He made an attempt at pushing through the crowd but was easily pushed back.

"Does he?" Kyle asked, ignoring Harold's request. "Is this a weird kink thing you've got going on? Maybe Harvey liked playing _daddy _too much. Is that it, Mikey?"

Mike tore his eyes away from the back of the crowd, his possible escape route being – well, not at all possible – and looked at Kyle is disgust.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he shouted, shoving Kyle away. Greg, who was nearby attempted to reach out to balance him, but Kyle waved him away and straightened. He licked at his lips and leered venomously. "Why are you doing this?" Mike asked, voice quietening

"Why?" Kyle asked incredulously, shoving him back. Mike had no choice but to stumble further against the counter, hand reaching back and bracing against the edge of the basin. "How about 'Halloween? Bobbing for apples. Humiliating me in front of Louis?"

Mike stared at his fellow associate in bewilderment. Was Kyle serious? All of _this _because of a minor incident that had occurred when he was all of _three. _

"You're kidding, right?" At the look on Kyle's face – leering and baying for blood – he knew he wasn't.

"And my nephew too," Kyle reminded him, shoving at him again so that his back hit the counter painfully. "He couldn't live it down. I couldn't live it down, but you wouldn't know that, right? Safely tucked away at Harvey's condo. And then when you're back here it's like you and Harvey belong to this exclusive club-"

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Mike let out a dry laugh. "Believe me. I'm sure Anna Green would be very willing to give you the chance. I guess Louis could be all of your _daddies._"

"Shut up!" Kyle snapped and shoved him again. Any further and he'd end up _in_ the basin. "It's not funny."

"Yeah, it kinda is," Mike disagreed. It really wasn't but he was on a pact with himself to disagree with everything Kyle had to say. "Considering you're jealous. Of pull-ups. Go ahead, Kyle. Have at it." He waved his hand dismissively at the pull-ups still in Kyle's hand.

Kyle tensed angrily and battered Mike's hand away before stepping closer and pinning him against the counter with his own body.

"Put it on," he hissed at Mike.

"What?" Mike laughed nervously. He tried to squirm and fidget away but Kyle had a good and firm hold of him.

"You heard," Kyle smiled dangerously at him. "_Have at it."_

"Get off me, Kyle," he warned him, panic seizing him again.

A muffled noise of nervousness floated and fluttered around them, some of their fellow associates now seemingly uncomfortable at the scene brewing in front of them. Even Gregory, Kyle's usual partner in crime, seemed alarmed.

"Kyle-" Gregory stepped up to the two of them, talking lowly into Kyle's ear. "Maybe you should stop."

"No way. We agreed he needed to be brought down a peg or two," Kyle snapped at his friend and shook off the hand that rested against his arm. "Put. It. On. or..."

"What the hell is going on in here?" a fierce voice erupted around them. It was followed by a few startled gasps and the sound of rushing feet – the associates at the back conveniently able to make quick exits – leaving the unfortunate ones who had wanted priority seats in 'Humiliate Mike Ross' stuck between his saviour and the actual culprits.

Kyle had immediately backed off and in the chaos, shoved the pull-ups into the hands of Gregory who had frantically tried to pull Kyle's hand away in a pathetic attempt at concealing them in mid-air.

The remaining associates parted aside to reveal Donna stood in the open doorway – face fiercely blushed red in rage. Gregory, caught in her direct stare, dropped the pull-ups to the floor as though they burned him, mouth open in shock. Donna barely gave the item a passing glance before returning her glare to him and then to Kyle.

Her eyes glanced briefly at Mike, who shook his head at her, flashing with concern.

"I asked you what the hell was going on?" she asked again.

He wanted to run.

He wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole.

He didn't want Donna to know he was seized with panic.

He didn't want Donna, or anyone else to know, that he wanted Harvey to make everything all right.

He didn't want anyone to know that he was without a doubt unable to look after himself and failing miserably at being the old Mike Ross.

And yet, he couldn't take his seized eyes off her, of letting all these thoughts spill over and taint the air between them.

He was a complete and utter failure. And Harvey could make things better, but Mike was absolutely sure now that Harvey wouldn't want that. Not now. They'd both get burned, so it would have been better for all involved if he just distanced himself and built some brand new walls. Only, that all went to shit as soon as he looked at Donna.

"Nothing," Kyle said, voice faltering under the stare.

"Nothing?" Donna repeated with a raised eyebrow.

Gregory nodded and shrugged.

Mike could see Donna tense, perfectly manicured hands flexing against her sides. He wasn't the only ones who saw it – both Kyle and Gregory gulped and backed up a few steps.

"All of you out," she calmly instructed but when it appeared they weren't moving fast enough she bellowed at them - "NOW!"

"Except you two," Donna said, side stepping in front of Kyle and Gregory and blocking them in. "You two get to go to my desk and wait."

"But we didn't..." Kyle started to say.

"It's either that or I get security to escort you out of this building right now," Donna told them. Now that the others had gone, Mike could see the palpable seething rage that she was barely reigning in. "Don't test my patience."

Gregory paled and nodded at once before dragging a reluctant Kyle away.

Donna turned a rather pale but still fiercely angry face towards him.

"Mike-" she tried, arm reaching out.

"It's nothing..." he told her, looking down at the pull-ups in shame.

"No, Mike-" Donna tried again.

He shied away from her this time and made for the door.

"I'm okay," He lied to her. He knew his voice betrayed the sentiment, choked and distorted in his throat. He made for the door that was now blissfully free of any evil-doing associates brandishing pull-ups. "Can you tell Harvey that I need to go."

He never gave her a chance to object and took the 146th option.

If all else fails: keep running.

xxx

Harvey became aware of a new problem in his saga with Mike when two of the associates suddenly appeared at Donna's desk. They both had a air of nervousness, but one looked particularly on edge.

He was certain it involved Mike when he caught sight of Donna marching towards her cubicle, hair flying wildly around her, clutching what looked like a giant size pair of pull-ups.

He stood to meet her and grill the two associates – Kyle and Gregory something – that was no doubt at the forefront of any wrong-doing. If it involved a pull-up, Harvey could only imagine what Mike's reaction would be, knowing full well of the kid's shame when he had to use them.

"Donna? What...?" Harvey started to say, already out of the office door.

"Harvey, please let me deal with this?" Donna asked, hand going up to rest against the front of his jacket. "At least until after you've found Mike."

"Found?" Harvey asked in confusion before narrowing his eyes and turning on the associates. "What the hell have you two dick-heads done?"

"Harvey," Donna pleaded, pushing him gently back towards his office. "Promise me you'll let me deal with this. I'll tell you everything, but you have to promise me you'll let me and Jessica – Louis too considering he's supposedly in charge of them – deal with it."

Harvey doesn't have a clue what has transpired but he already knows he wants to rip the two douches heads off. He could even display them with his basket-balls. But somewhere in the back of his head he registered her words and translated it to _Mike is missing. Again._

Taking a breath, Harvey nodded and indicated for her to join him in his office, taking note of the audible gulps both associates made when he and Donna gave simultaneous glares.

xxx

Harvey had done as Donna had requested. Jessica and Louis had both been informed of the situation that had occurred and, although shocked, had agreed that the best option for Harvey would be to find his associate to make sure he was okay. The silent _'and make sure he doesn't sue'_ went unsaid.

Harvey very happily offered to test his boxing skills but he ended up leaving them in the questionable hands of Donna instead. Which was satisfying in itself.

He couldn't get hold of Mike on his phone or at his apartment and even tried both the nursing home and the unsavoury bar he'd found him at before. He'd called the firm to tell them he hadn't been successful and considered heading back there until Jessica insisted he return home with a clarifying reminder that the kid might eventually turn up there.

His cab had made it's way through an onslaught of traffic and he wearily made his way up via the main elevator. He really hadn't expected the kid to be there. Not after the cold shoulder treatment he'd been receiving lately. But sure enough there was a familiar figure huddled there in his doorway.

"Mike?"

"Harvey?" he said, head snapping up quickly. A shaky hand wiped at his eyes and Harvey could instantly see the kid had been crying.

"Yeah..." Harvey breathed out uncertainly, moving forward. "What happ-"

"Harvey-" Mike's voice broke and then suddenly his slight form was springing and launching himself at him.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, having no choice but to drop his briefcase and catch the flailing kid, arms wrapping around him in the impromptu hug. "Hey, kid... it's okay. Take it easy."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Mike murmured hysterically, his face plastered into the nook of Harvey's neck. He could feel fresh tears dampen against his skin, body trembling in his hold. "I know you don't want this. But I can't do it any more, Harvey. I need you. I really need you. _Please, _Harvey."

Harvey heart broke right there and then. This was what he wanted – not the hysterical, pain-filled pleadings, of course – but Mike in his life. The fake son he never knew he needed until now.

"Listen to me, kid," Harvey said and pulled away. Mike blinked at him with tear-filled eyes and sucked in a wobbly lip before his eyes darted away. He sighed and grabbed the kid's face between his two hands causing Mike's focus to be re-directed at him. "I've been trying to tell you – this _is_ what I want too. I want to go back to how things were before."

Mike blinked in confusion.

"Like before before or before as in after Anna changed me for the first time?"

Harvey rolled his eyes.

"The second one" Harvey confirmed.

Mike made a choking sound and buried his face back into Harvey's neck.

Harvey had never felt so natural at comforting someone as he did right now.

xxx

Harvey managed to bundle the kid into the apartment and swaddled him in a blanket. It hadn't been particularly cold but Mike had continued shaking and latched on to the soft material as though his life depended on it.

They had ended up talking a lot. About the last few weeks – particularly what Kyle and the associates had been doing (which Harvey vowed would end in termination, which he then had to promise to the kid didn't actually mean _extermination_) – and how Mike had distanced himself from Harvey because it hurt to be too close to him.

Harvey hated himself for that.

"Are you for real?" Mike asked him, blowing his lips over a cup of cocoa. "You're not just saying it, like the last time?"

"Move in," Harvey suddenly announced. It had been abrupt and a spur of the moment comment. But wanted none the less.

"What?" Mike spluttered through a mouthful of drink.

"Move in," he repeated, a smile forming, words firmer and more decisive.

"Harvey, don't kid around. Please," Mike whispered, putting the mug down.

"I'm not," Harvey told him, smile turning into a full on grin, body relaxing. "You want to, don't you?"

Mike nodded eagerly.

"Good," Harvey smiled encouragingly and joined him on the couch, arm wrapping around the already swaddled shoulders. "Because so do I."

He could feel the kid relax under his arm, tension rolling out of him.

They stayed like that for several minutes. Long enough for Harvey to think Mike had fallen asleep under his arm.

"When?"

"What?"

"When?" Mike repeated. "When do I move in."

"Oh. Now. Now would be a good time, right?"

Mike nodded again.

"None of my stuff is here."

"Right," Harvey said, realising all that was new (again) was a sleepy associate with a ratty messenger bag. "We could get them tomorrow."

"No," Mike said, voice reminiscent of the small child who'd only been there a few months earlier. " I want to move in _now, _Harvey."

"You want to get your stuff now? It's 11:00," Harvey reminded him.

Mike nodded against him and when he looked down he found Mike looking up at him with those specially trained doleful and puppy-fied eyes .

"Okay," Harvey agreed and stood up, offering his hand to the younger man to pull him up. "Now it is."

xxx

Harvey had never been a fan of Mike's place. In fact, he was very relieved he'd, and Mike, would never have to step back in the place ever again.

Although, in Harvey's own classification of housing categories – which had been summed up as _shit-hole –_ he had never recalled it in this type of disarray before. Mike had, despite his organised chaos in life, always been quite tidy and relatively clean at home. Admittedly, Harvey had only been there on a few occasions, but the apartment had been relatively free of clutter.

Today, and from what he could see, probably the last few weeks since returning to his apartment, there were clothes scattered over the couch, dirty dishes in the kitchen and several empty take-out boxes adorning most surfaces.

"When was the last time you tidied?" Harvey asked, eyeing his charge with a questionable frown.

"Hey," Mike objected, pushing past and grabbing at a few shirts from the back of the couch. "It's not as bad as it looks."

Harvey shook his head at Mike's funky logic and then broke into laughter, "Right. Whatever you say, Mike."

Mike shrugged and disappeared around the corner to the small area that housed his bed. Harvey made an effort at snagging as many take-out boxes as he could, dumping them into the already overflowing bin. Wrinkling his nose, he stamped down on it with his too expensive shoe, making room for further garbage.

By the time he got back to Mike, the kid was already messily pushing winkled and scrunched pants and tops into a holdall. Harvey took note to see most of Mike's suits were immaculately hanging up and gave him an appraising look. He'd brought some old cases for suits that Donna had left at his condo ages ago.

"Wait-" Harvey berated him softly and Mike instantly stilled, blinking at him. "Are these even clean?"

"Clean enough," Mike muttered with a shrug.

Harvey tutted at Mike and snagged a top from his hand, sniffing it.

"Seriously?" Mike asked with a stupid grin. "Harvey Specter is smelling my clothes?"

"This hasn't even be washed," Harvey grimaced before flinging it towards the washing machine. He eyed the rest of the clothes lying haphazardly across the bed. "Do you even have any clean ones?"

"My suits?" Mike answered with a sheepish grin and he couldn't help but smile back, the edge of his lips quirking with amusement.

"Well, at least there's that," he dryly rolled out, before proceeding to pick through the younger man's belongings. "I see my adoption couldn't come soon enough."

"Hey-" Mike interjected, pulling a pair Scooby Doo pyjama bottoms out of Harvey's hand. "What are you doing?"

"Getting your shit together to wash."

Mike didn't say anything. Instead he broke into laughter.

"Right," he said through a guffaw of laughter. He dropped the bottoms and headed back to the couch, dropping onto it. "This I have to see. Knock yourself out."

"Need I remind you that you stayed with me for two weeks. Who did you think cleaned your baby grows?"

Mike huffed and glared at him.

"I didn't have any baby grows!"

Harvey finally finished dumping all of his clothes, including his underpants, in the machine, growling at him all the way.

"Why the hell did you wait so long to do your washing?"

"I don't know, Harvey," Mike shrugged with an impish grin. "Maybe I thought they'd grow legs and walk to the machine."

"Or-" Harvey rolled his eyes at him, repeatedly hitting the 'on' button. "You're washing machine is broken."

Mike broke out into a huge grin and nodded.

"Oh, yeah. There was that too."

If Mike was shocked when Harvey started going through his dirty clothes, he practically fell off the couch when he dropped to his knees, rolled his sleeves and proceeded to remove all the items and some of the fixtures too.

"Huh. What _are _you doing?"

"Fixing your washing machine," Harvey explained matter of factly. Throwing his head back he could see Mike's mouth agape in shock. "What? You think I haven't fixed a washing machine before."

Mike nodded.

"You're full of surprises," he said in awe. "It's actually quite amazing."

Harvey considered this for a second and then nodded too.

"You need to remind Donna that the next time hers craps out on her."

Mike just continued to nod and stare.

After twenty minutes of tinkering he was done.

"Okay," Harvey declared, giving the machine a celebratory clap to the top. "I think we're good to go."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The drum was loose. It's just a temporary thing, but I think we're all right for one or two loads."

"Right," Mike nodded dumbly from his seat.

Harvey continued with his clearing up. With the machine shuddering to life, he started on the dishes, eyeing the remainder of the take-out boxes that still needed to be collected and the vacuum cleaner in the corner.

"You going to give me a hand or what?"

Mike shook his head and wiped at his eyes blearily.

"No?" Harvey asked, amused at his honesty. "And why's that?"

"Because this is amazing."

Mike ended up falling asleep to the sound of Harvey vacuuming his soon to be old apartment.

xxx

_tbc_

**An/N2**

I know quite a few was hoping Harvey would put Mike _in _a man-size pull up. Because of the strong need for this I might try and actually work this into the next chapter (it could work – Mike will be petrified at one point, so you never know).

Again sorry for the delay!


	8. Chapter 8: Part 1

**A/N:** So this was going to be the last chapter... but so far I'm 20 pages in and haven't finished. I'm going to leave it there and have to put the rest in another chapter (so, Phoenix... you get at least one more!) So the finale is a two parter. Oooh go me. Lol.

**Spoilers:** Just a little explanation – this chapter is actually interwoven with episode the **Errors and Omissions** (with some blatant quotes taking from it), but just so as not to confuse everyone, I'm using creative licence and saying that it actually **occurred much later in the series.** There's also some reference to **Bail Out **– so it happens sometime after that. Also, I've tweaked some episode (E&O) details to make way for some of my explanations as to what occurred.

**Disclaimers:** Standard Disclaimers apply - see 1'st chapter.

**Chapter 8 – Part 1**

xxx

"I said No."

"But..."

"What part of 'No' don't you get?"

They've been going over the same ground now for what seemed like ages. Mike, petulant and pouting, ready to stamp his foot at any given moment. Harvey, still lingering in the furiousness he had been feeling since he found out about Mike's misadventure the day before.

"What part of 'his a massive client for the firm and he wants to be working with you' don't you get?"

Harvey stayed rooted to his seat behind his desk and folded his arms.

"No," he repeated more firmly.

"He wants to work with us," Mike whined in frustration.

"Yeah, I wonder why?" Harvey fumed in distaste.

"Please," Mike scoffed from the couch, scuffing his heel frustratingly against the floor and ignoring the angry glare Harvey gave him for it. "It's not like any thing happened."

Harvey might be the official adult in this scenario but he had an urge to throw his pen, that sat invitingly in the central of his desk, right at the kid's head. He didn't, of course, because the pen is way too expensive for that action and as much as Mike was spinning him into exasperation, he didn't actually want to be the one to inflict bodily harm on him. Instead he just glared at him in what he hoped looked mildly threatening.

It must have worked because Mike gulped and shuffled uncomfortably on the sofa.

"Bad, I mean," Mike corrected, squirming. "It's not like anything bad happened?"

"No?" Harvey asked incredulously. "It's not bad to lie to me?"

Mike bit down on his lip and looked anywhere but Harvey.

"It's not bad to shirk your responsibilities, to fuck up someone's chance at hitting the big time? To ruin his career and risk the multi-millions he'd put into this?"

"Uh," Mike said, raising a hand. If he didn't push his luck with that gesture he definitely did with the small smile that went along with it. "You just used a bad word."

"To get high? With a client of all people?" Harvey said, ignoring Mike's attempt at diffusing the situation, because all it did was anger him more.

"Technically..."

"No!" Harvey snapped at him furiously and Mike flinched in his seat, hand instantly going for a cushion and tugging it to him. Harvey blinked at him in surprise, trying to quell the sudden affection he felt for the kid because he had to, in this current situation, remain in the 'you did a bad thing' territory. He did, however, make a mental note to bring H.B to the office more. "There's no 'technically' about it. That's what you did!"

"It's Louis fault..." Mike murmured irritably.

Harvey sighed tiredly at the kid's refusal to take any responsibility for the events that had transpired. If it happened back when Mike had first joined the firm he would have totally bought the whole 'Louis set me up' spiel but he'd been second guessing the kid ever since he had heard what happened.

He remembered it in clear detail, how Mike had practically bounded in to his office, literally jumping off the walls and slapping the much needed patent down on his desk with a _'Boom. There you go. Look at that'_ , with what he could only describe as drunken jubilee. At first he had chalked it up to an over-indulgence of the Redbull, but then Mike started rambling about Tennis and Louis and the _'You know about the head-band?_'. Alarm bells started ringing and when he questioned the kid about how he had time to appeal the paperwork, Mike did this weird uncoordinated click of the fingers and he swore that the kid's body was trembling with agitation, as though his body would just vibrate out of his office. His suspicions were confirmed seconds later when he got inches in front of his face, one look at the kid's eyes, the way Mike was pretty much relaxed and nonchalant with Harvey invading his personal space, head-bobbing away fluidly as though it was going to roll off his neck at any given moment.

Mike had ended pleading and begging and told him a story about how Louis had wanted him to bring in Tom Keller because, apparently, they were both 'pot heads' and had told him _'Because you're young and you consider yourself hip' _and _'Someone from his generation who shares the same prolificacy's '._ Harvey had been incredibly confused by this. As far as he knew, Mike hadn't used any pot since their little confrontation back when Mike had first joined the firm and he had wondered why Louis would now try and use it as ammunition. He had also, since Mike's experience with his bullies last month, begrudgingly begun to respect Louis, who had taken it upon himself, along with Jessica, to discipline those responsible. Louis had, surprisingly, been seething that his associates could behave so despicably and had been all set on firing both Durant and Boone, but thanks to an emotional pleading from Mike of all people, the two associates had been transferred to other departments. Jessica had applauded Mike's maturity, although Harvey was sure Mike's request was more to do with the fear of the repercussions both in and out of the firm, than the kid's attempt to rise above it. After the event though, Harvey had respected Louis a little more, for putting Mike before his own need of breeding his own pool of cut throat lawyers.

That didn't stop him from confronting him about the obviously high kid, who after being thrown out of his office, immediately returned saying he didn't feel well and that there was a real possibility that his highlighters were conspiring to kill him, which was quite alarming considering in the absence of H.B he never went anywhere without them.

"_Louis!" he snapped as soon as he tracked the junior partner down to his office. "Care to explain why my ki... Why Mike is in my office declaring war against his highlighters?"_

"_Huh?" Louis answered bemused. "Did you finally break him?"_

"_He's as high as a kite!" Harvey fumed at him. "What were you thinking?"_

"_What?" Louis asked, blinking at him from his desk and then his eyes widened. "Oh. That explains a lot. I just thought he was geeking out."_

_Harvey shook his head, torn between grabbing the shorter man and squeezing his hands around his neck and dragging Mike in to the office, because things didn't seem to be adding up. Louis looked genuinely confused and what the hell did he mean by 'geeking out'?_

"_The kid thinks his highlighters are talking about him," Harvey clarified, hoping his eyes promised murder in the same way it had unnerved Mike. "He's talking a mile a minute and practically vibrating out of his skin. How the hell did you not notice?"_

_Louis just blinked at him in response._

"_Mike's high?" Louis repeated slowly. "How? When... wait a minute – are you saying he got high WITH Keller?"_

_Harvey just rolled his eyes and flicked his hand at him in a 'duh' gesture._

"_Why?" Louis asked in bewilderment._

"_Because he thought you thought they were both pot heads and that he had to get high with Keller to bring him in."_

"_He did? They are? What?"_

"_Louis!"_

"_Mike's a pot head?"_

"_What?" Harvey asked, instantly back-peddling with a shake of the head. "No! He just thought that's what you thought."_

"_Then why go along with it?"_

"_He dabbled in it when he was younger, okay?" Harvey said, choosing a half lie instead. "He thought you were blackmailing him with it. He's pretty insecure at the moment. I'm pretty sure he'd go along with anything you said. I think he's worried you're angry at him for losing two of your best associates... and you kind of creeped him out with the whole pony speech."_

_Louis appeared to contemplate what had just been said._

"_Yes," he agreed after a few seconds. "He has been a bit jumpier around me recently. I can see why he'd see that."_

"_So you didn't then?" Harvey asked him. "Ask him?"_

"_No," Louis replied, gulping as his eyes settled on Harvey's hands that were still folded into tight fists at his sides. Everyone knew of Harvey's skills at boxing. "I swear."_

_Harvey nodded and released his folded hands, sinking into a chair._

"_So what did you ask him?"_

"_I thought he knew," Louis said, scratching at his bald patch in confused wonder. At Harvey's raised eyebrows he continued with a rush. "Keller's an internet wonder. One of the biggest names in fantasy football leagues."_

"_And?" Harvey prompted._

"_And..." Louis said slowly as though Harvey was the slowest person on the planet. "Mike's a geek."_

"_I don't get where you're going," Harvey said waving him on. "If you were this vague with Mike I can see why he thought you were asking him to take drugs."_

"_I heard from Harold that Mike had mentioned he had a team. I thought he could talk tactics, get on his side, convince him to consider meeting me."_

_Harvey nearly burst out laughing. All of this confusion over the fact Mike played fantasy football._

"_I can see why he could have misinterpreted what I was trying to say."_

"_What the whole ' young and hip' thing. What about 'his generation'? You think? Maybe next time you could try 'Hey, Mike. I hear you play fantasy football. Fancy meeting Tom Keller and promoting the firm. And while you're at it how about trying to convince him I'm not just a creepy naked dude."_

"_I suppose," Louis admitted reluctantly. " I didn't want to have to ask Harvey Specter's associate for help."_

_Harvey smiled with slight satisfaction, standing up and patting the other man's shoulder, "There's always next time, Louis."_

_Louis looked at his shoulder in disdain and Harvey laughed withdrawing it as he retreated to the doorway._

"_Patronisation is really not becoming of you, Harvey."_

"_You should stop with those pony speeches. You know they never work out."_

_Louis huffed a breath out at him._

_There was always something you could rely on every year. Louis and his pony. Gregory had never really been an contender; he was a follower. Kyle had potential; but in the end his relentless mission to bully Mike out of his position as Harvey's associate had seen him lose that opportunity. That now only really left the Harold kid. He was no Mike, of course, but out of all the rest he was the only one working against the grain. The one who didn't blindly follow the herd. For Harvey, that meant something. He just hoped Louis saw it too._

"_And just so you know," Harvey continued, smiling dangerously at him. "If you – on purpose or accidental – get the kid high or hurt him or use him in anyway to get to me – I'll... well, I wont say anything that will incriminate me, but the possibilities are endless." He stepped out into the hall and ducked his head back in, smile friendly enough, but just enough edge to give him a warning. "But I'm sure your little head will come up with the right scenario."_

_kneecaps and broken came to mind._

_xxx_

"He didn't actually tell you to get high," Harvey reminded him, ignoring the epic sulk his supposed extraordinary and _adult _associate was currently in.

"I already told you!" Mike continued to huff out. "I _thought _that's what he meant. I mean you have to admit it – it did sound like that's what he wanted. I was only thinking about what it could mean for both of us."

Harvey glanced up from the file he was trying to go over and glanced at the younger man with a bemused look.

"Okay. I was thinking about me," Mike admitted sheepishly. "I thought he had something on me. I... didn't want to lose this. I didn't want to... Things are pretty good right now, Harvey. I didn't want to _not_ be working with you."

Mike's voice was soft, almost whimsical and Harvey can't but notice that he was tearing up, hand going up to rub at his eyes. Great, now he had a tired, grouchy and emotional Mike on his hands.

"Mike," Harvey said, softening his voice. Mike lifted his head at the change of tone, eyes still glistening, but now with a look of hope. "I already told you if someone puts a gun to your head – whether Louis meant to give you that impression or not – that you don't give in and get killed. You could have come to me."

"Does this mean you'll reconsider?"

Harvey rolled his eyes and went back to his file.

"I don't get you," Mike whined, dropping his had down on the the back of the couch. "I'm working with Tom whether he's with you or Louis-"

"Oh. You are, are you?" Harvey asked dismissively.

"Yes!" Mike snapped, head lifting as he sought out Harvey's own glare. They ended up locked in heated stare off. "Because I brought him in... okay, so I went about it completely wrong... but the fact is I brought in a multi-million dollar client who wants to work with me. And I might work with you and live with you..." Mike said, voice drifting quieter as Harvey's eyebrows raised at each statement. "... But I am an adult."

Mike shuffled uncomfortably again, face reddening.

"And I thought... you know, what better way... you know..."

"What?" Harvey said, rather impatiently, pushing the file aside and leaning forward to give his full attention because he was sure now that Mike's stuttering and red face was now one of their 'sensitive' moments (which was what Donna was now calling them).

"If Keller was working with you... you know... you could protect your interests," Mike finally stuttered out.

Harvey knew instantly what Mike meant, but (and Donna would most probably say it was because he was emotionally stunted and as insecure on this new father/son relationship as Mike was) he needed the kid to clarify it.

"Which is?"

"Me?" Mike asked softly.

Harvey was stuck between reassuring the kid and laughing it off. Instead he chose indifference instead.

"Okay, okay," Harvey muttered as though it was like any other battle they had. "Whatever."

"Seriously?" Mike asked, insecure face from before breaking into a huge doofus of a grin.

Harvey just shrugged and dragged the file back across his desk.

"Yes!" Mike exclaimed loudly, pumping his fist in the air triumphantly.

"Seriously?" Harvey parroted back, waving a hand in the kid's direction. "You tell me you're an adult and then act like _that_?"

Mike stopped, smirked and shrugged before murmuring 'yes' again and pumping his fist in a smaller, less energetic move, tucking his arm in.

"You really need to work on the gloating too," Harvey rolled his eyes and threw the file across the space between them – causing Mike to stall his self-celebratory gloating and catch it mid air (because Harvey had no intention of proofing it in the first place).

"There'll be rules though."

xxx

As it turned out there really was just one rule. Don't get high.

And really, everything was fine for about a month afterwards, until it wasn't.

Only, this time, Harvey really couldn't blame Keller.

xxx

In that month, Mike continued living with Harvey. Just like before, though, Mike was a mixture of emotions and Harvey could not make heads or tails of it. Harvey, himself, remained the same – he wanted Mike there, he tried to make the kid feel at home, and actively made an effort not to shy away from any affection or attention (negative or positive) he might need. He was kind of proud that he was being a steady constant in Mike's life.

Mike on the other hand was confusing the hell out of him. One minute he was irritable and grouchy, stomping all over his condo and refusing to come out of his room, the next he was following Harvey around, hanging off every word, sitting close to him on the couch and dipping his head close to his shoulder.

Harvey figured there were good days and bad days but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what caused them or when they would occur. The last week had been frequented with more bad days then good – Mike deliberately pushing his buttons, refusing to tidy up after himself, leaving his shit all over the place and getting lippy with him and, most surprisingly, the bad attitude had followed them to the office. Not surprisingly, however, was the increased need to put Mike into some much needed time-outs both at home and in Harvey's office.

Whenever he had tried to bring it up with the kid, Mike would just end shouting or muttering at him, and stomping to his room.

He even had to go to Donna for advice but she was just as lost as he was.

"Have you tried to talk to him?"

"All the time," Harvey muttered tiredly, head dipping back on his office chair, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "Trust me – it never works out."

"Just keep trying," Donna implored of him from the couch. "You know Mike, there's always a reason."

"I hope so," Harvey sighed and then laughed dryly, shaking his head. "That came out wrong. Jesus, if it was anyone else, they'd be fired by now."

"Lucky for him that he lives with you then," Donna said smiling. She had a note pad on her lap.

"Don't remind me," Harvey moaned at her and then glared at the pad in her hand. "Are you note taking?"

"Just documenting history in making. I'm calling it 'Harvey Specter: Mentor to Father In Sixty Seconds'.

Harvey rolled his eyes at her. Now all he really needed was Nick to drop by and start capturing those special 'moments' with his camera.

Donna chuckled from the couch.

"Hysterical," he muttered at her.

She shrugged in response and then tapped her pad with her pen.

"Maybe his hormones have gone haywire again," she offered in explanation. "I could take him to see Anna Green again."

Harvey eyed the pen in her hand and caught how her fingers tightened dangerously around it when she practically gritted out the doctor's name.

"Yeah... I don't think so," Harvey said with a smirk. "Unless you want me to represent you for premeditated murder."

Donna considered this for a second and then appeared to deflate before using her pen to cross something off the note pad.

Harvey smirked again before dropping his head back overt the edge of his seat.

"Do you think it's got anything to do with Keller?"

"No," Donna said firmly, so firmly that he had no choice but to look at her again. Her face was serious, eyes set in serious thinking. "He's been here for what? At least two meetings? He's been nothing but serious and on his best behaviour. I think Mike must have warned him of your reservations."

"Maybe he's a charmer. He might be lying."

"No. I can tell when someone's lying. He has no tells," she said, giving him a pointed look. "Even you have them, Harvey."

Harvey did a double take, ignoring the satisfied smile she was giving him, and waved at her to continue.

"Oh," she laughed, still smiling. "I don't think so. This is why I know you so well. I can't give all the secrets away, can I. What's next? Telling the kid what the can opener means?"

Harvey pouted at her and grinned.

xxx

Surprisingly things seemed to settle out and Mike's behaviour became more predictable and less alarming. Of course that didn't mean Harvey was ready to release Mike from the proverbial child-like reigns.

The following week, due to an emergency meeting put out by Jessica, Harvey could not meet up with Keller for a planned discussion of some upcoming changes to the fantasy football company. It wasn't something that could be rearranged. Keller had already agreed to reschedule twice because of similar circumstances. It was really unprofessional to do it a third time.

"I can do it," Mike offered.

Harvey rolled his eyes and ignored the boy who was stood in front of him.

"Harvey..." Mike started to whine.

"Yeah," Harvey scoffed at him. "That's a reason right there."

Mike fidgeted with agitation, body tense and obviously wound up. He wiped his hand down across his face in frustration.

"Come on, Harvey," Donna's voice floated through the intercom. "You've got to trust him sooner or later. Let him out of the play pen."

"Thank you, Donna," Mike said, turning to face her, voice sounding suddenly very mature and adult like. He stalled though and considered her words before shaking his head. "I think?"

"My pleasure, sweetie," she said, winking at him.

Harvey glared at Donna though the glass and made a great effort to show her he was turning the intercom off.

Mike sighed dejectedly and made his way over to window, sitting heavily on to the ledge.

Harvey turned and studied him. The kid looked utterly miserable and Harvey wondered if it was simply down to the fact he wasn't letting him play at the adult table. Of course, for Harvey, it wasn't just down to that either. He knew this meeting would involve a bar and drinks and he wasn't entirely sure of Keller's motives despite the fact that Keller had done nothing (apart from the initial meeting) to indicate he was anything but professional. He just didn't want to come home from the partner's meeting to a stoned Mike or the disappointment that would surely follow.

"Listen-" Harvey tried to say, standing up.

"You can trust me, you know," Mike told him quietly.

And there were those words. The ones that maybe, to Harvey at least, were the reason that there was still something between them like an invisible barrier.

Harvey turned around, facing Donna who was staring intently at both of them, and tried to step away.

"Harvey, I want you to-" Mike started to say, breath shaking in the space between them. "I need you to trust me. Okay?"

The words kept him still for a a minute or so and he knew – deep down where it really mattered – that he could. Why else let him into his life – his office and his home? He didn't know why Mike's actions from a month before still angered him, but the mere thought of Mike with Keller in a bar caused his blood to boil and he didn't want to snap at the kid, didn't want to make him run again.

"Harvey?" Mike's soft voice was heard from behind.

He walked.

xxx

"Just give him some time," Donna offered Mike when he exited the office a few seconds later.

"He's had a month already," Mike muttered miserably, going to slump at her desk.

"You hurt him," Donna told him simply, her face flashing with anger as though he had never considered the possibility.

Mike recoiled from the desk in shame, his face flushing red.

"Yeah?... he did the same to me," Mike said, because he didn't know what else to say.

It kind of sounded lame and pathetic too.

xxx

In the end, after a much needed game plan talk with Donna and her mysterious note pad, they both agreed that Mike should be trusted to meet with Keller. Although really it was more of a test – for both Mike and their client.

Again – there were rules:

Keller had to come to the office to be personally grilled by Harvey

Keller had to personally escort Mike from the office to the bar.

There would be no drink driving.

Mike had to be home no later than midnight.

"and.." Harvey continued, a warning tone to his voice. "I get any indication that there's been any drugs exchanged you're dropped from the firm. Understood.?"

Keller nodded, face serious and looking alarmed.

"Yes, sir," Tom informed him seriously, looking over at Donna nervously. She'd placed herself on the couch with her pad open, face concentrating hard as she scrutinised him. "Can I ask you a question though?"

Harvey considered this, glancing at Donna who tilted her head and shrugged.

"Sure. Go ahead," Harvey answered.

"I get that the first meeting didn't come across very well," Tom said, nervously, coughing a little to disguise his discomfort. "But why? All of this I mean. Are you like this with all you associates?"

Donna snorted at that and ignored Harvey's glare.

"Two reasons," Harvey answered truthfully. "One - Mike doesn't have a lot of people to look out for him. And Two – I'm just protecting my interests."

"Okay," Tom said, nodding – although he now looked more perplexed than before. "I suppose I should get going."

"Yes. Go. But one other thing. If he returns anything different to that-" Harvey said, pointing to their current subject who was sat, mortified, at Donna's desk. "- then you and I will be getting to know each other on a more personal level."

Keller paled and nodded before hurrying out of the office.

Mike had obviously heard everything through the intercom and scowled at him before gathering his bag and disappearing with their client.

Harvey turned to look at his assistant.

"No tells," she told him confidently.

xxx

"Harvey's pretty intense for a boss," Tom commented later.

Mike had made sure they'd gone over the new ideas and that he'd filed the paperwork safely in his bag because (and yes he had promised Harvey to be a good boy but he was having yet another bad day and had dealt with another 'bad news' phone call that had only soured his mood even more) he thoroughly planned to get sloshed.

Of course, he really should have told Harvey. Hell, he should have told Harvey the other week when he'd first got the call. But, naturally, he didn't. Couldn't? Harvey had already put up with a lot from him. He'd even let him move in with him. He couldn't ask for more.

So how did he repay him? By getting rip-roaring drunk. That whole 'trust' thing was pretty defunct now anyway, considering there was still so much he hadn't told him.

Besides, Harvey had really pissed him off with the whole lecture he'd given Tom, like he was still a little kid.

"Control issues," Mike muttered around his glass.

"What happens if I don't get you back before midnight?" Tom asked, eyes crinkling with amusement. "Does something turn into a pumpkin?"

Mike smirked and placed the glass on the bar in front of them and watched as it multiplied in front of his eyes. "How about my life?"

Maybe drinking on an empty stomach wasn't the best move. Things were moving much quicker than he'd anticipated.

"Huh?" Tom asked confused and then widened his eyes as he caught Mike's disorientated move to chase the bottle on the bar between them. "Whoa! No, I don't think so," he muttered, snagging Mike's hand mid air. "I think you've had enough."

"I don't think so," Mike giggled his way through, attempting to snag the bottle back.

"Yeah, I think so," Tom muttered back. Mike squinted at the bottle and then Tom. There were too many 'thinks' being banded about. "I promised Harvey I'd get you back in one piece."

Mike fumed and stayed rooted to his seat. There Harvey was again, ruining his life, and he wasn't even in the building.

"C'mon," Tom said, attempting to tug him up. "Let's go. We'll even be early. That'll show him."

"No," Mike said firmly, pushing him away. "I'm fine. You go."

"Mike," Tom warned, a flash of panic crossing his face. "I promised-"

"Don't worry," Mike snapped at him and waved him off. "I'll tell _daddy _that I refused to go with you. I don't know why you're worried. You're the client."

Tom managed to hook a hand around his elbow and had Mike half off the stool when a booming voice stopped both of them.

"Mike? Is that you?"

"Huh?" Mike managed in a rather inelegant way. An arm was suddenly swung around him and a head buried in his shoulder. Instantly a familiar scent affronted his senses and Mike breathed it in deeply, processing it. "Trevor?"

"The one and only," Trevor exclaimed brightly, his head suddenly appearing beside his own, grin wide. He nodded his face into the side of Mike's. "Who's the stiff?"

"Tom," Tom answered for himself, looking none too pleased. He made an effort to tug at Mike's elbow again. "And we're going."

"No, you are," Mike reminded him, pulling his arm out of the hold. Trevor smiled and pulled him towards him. "Trevor can take me home."

"Cool," Trevor drawled, squeezing Mike's shoulder tightly and eyeing Tom up with a wary look.

"Oh. Right," Mike started laughing to himself again. "You'll need to take me to Harvey's though. I live with him now."

Trevor snapped his attention back to Mike in shock.

"You do?"

"'Cause I can't look after myself apparently," Mike muttered angrily and then as an after thought added - "He's controlling."

"Yeah," Trevor agreed in sympathy, knocking his head against Mike's again. "I figured that when he sent me to Montana."

"Why are you back?" Mike asked suddenly realising his friend was back.

"I got bored."

"When-"

"Look, I hate to break up your reunion," Tom interrupted, now looking mightily pissed off. "But I promised his boss I would get him home."

"Dude! I already told you. I'm not going, so back off!"

"Yeah," Trevor chimed in and Mike managed to catch the smugness to the tone. "I'll get him back. Don't worry."

Over his head he realised that both Trevor and Tom were having some kind of stare off again until someone, he doesn't know who, jostled him and it was over.

"You know what? Do what you want, Mike. I don't care," Tom snapped at him, finally releasing his hold. "I don't need this shit. Like you said before _I _am the the _client _and I can take my money elsewhere. I don't need Harvey."

Dimly Mike was aware that this was a bad thing but instead of trying to make things right he made a funny face at Trevor and ended up giggling, making a grab for the bottle again. Tom shook his head and made to move off

Trevor chuckled too and slapped him on the back.

Surprisingly Tom reappeared a few seconds later and slapped twenty dollars down on the bar between them.

"Make sure he gets home," he snarled at Trevor and then he was really gone.

Shit. Harvey was going to kill him. Not to mention Louis.

xxx

Mike's been with Trevor for over half an hour now and even through his drunken haze he realised this is not where wanted to be. A headache was forming and the rolling of his stomach just added to the uneasiness of it all.

"Why did you come back?" Mike asked Trevor.

"I told you. I got bored," Trevor told him. "Plus, I missed you."

Mike smiled slightly, but he could feel that it didn't reach his eyes. If he was being honest with himself – had he really missed Trevor? No, he didn't think he had. Through the last several months Mike's life had revolved around one person. Harvey. And the fact that he'd been a kid one minute and stuck in teen-hood the next. It really hadn't left much time for him to consider much else. It was hard enough to navigate through his and Harvey's complicated emotions to really miss someone he might have actually lost a long time ago.

When he'd first joined the firm and had the huge bust up with Trevor he'd been distraught especially when Jenny had turned up and slapped him, accusing him of abandoning them. He'd cried and he'd got angry and things had only ever got worse and not better.

But things felt different now. They had history. That would never change, but it couldn't make up for all the misery they'd given each other. Of course, the little dalliance he'd once had with Jenny, was also making this particular get together awkward too.

"Right," Mike managed to say out loud, realising he wasn't returning the sentiment.

"I've been back a few weeks now," Trevor informed, eyes flashing. Maybe he too realised Mike was pretty much 'meh' in regards to to his absence. "I've been trying to get hold of you. You being with the suit explains why I couldn't."

"Yeah," Mike agreed quietly, eyes roaming across the room distractedly. He really felt like leaving now. Going back home. To Harvey.

It was still early. Harvey wouldn't even be back yet and he wouldn't have a clue that he had openly disregarded the rules.

"I should go," Mike decided.

"No," Trevor exclaimed quietly, wrapping his hand over Mike's. "Stay."

"Listen, Trevor," Mike tried. "I've drank way too much and I'm tired and I'm pretty sure by what happened earlier that I've got my work cut out trying to convince Tom to stay with the firm."

Not to mention saving my job.

"Screw the client, Mike," Trevor thumped the table hard, glasses shaking. Mike flinched as Trevor's hand wrapped around his tighter. "We need to talk."

Mike shook his head and pulled his hand away.

"I'm sorry, Trevor. I really need to go. We can catch up later. Okay?"

This time it was Trevor who shook his head.

"I know about you and Jenny," Trevor told him.

Mike stilled in his seat, frozen. Trevor didn't look mad or angry, if anything there was an air of understanding and forgiveness.

"Uh..." Mike started to say. "How did you...?"

"Jenny told me," he said, eerily calm and then shrugged. "We got back together."

Mike took a minute to process that little bit of information before filing away the momentarily stinging feeling that went along with it.

"Right. Good for you," Mike said, making a move to leave again. "I really do need to go."

"To Harvey?" Trevor sneered. "Right, because he's the better man? He's not."

He is

Harvey is the man who didn't judge the loser with the briefcase full of pot.

Harvey is the man who who gave him a second chance.

Harvey is the man who's got him out of trouble (both in and out of work) several times over.

Harvey is the man who put his life on hold for him.

Harvey is the man who looked after him when he couldn't look after himself.

Harvey is the man who took him in when he needed somewhere to go.

Harvey is the man to tell him the things he needed to hear.

Mike shook his head and smiled at Trevor.

"He's not me, Mike," Trevor snapped at him, getting angry.

"I'm sorry, Trevor," Mike said, leaning forward, voice hitching with both emotion and an intense epiphany. "He's more than you. He's what I needed since my dad..." his voice trailed off, the message received. However Trevor wasn't having any of it.

"Don't leave," Trevor implored of him. His hand reached out again and wound around Mike's elbow in similar way to Tom's, only this time it was painful. "Come back with me. It'll be just like before. Me and Jenny. You and me."

"Don't make this any harder, Trevor," Mike whispered.

_Goodbye_

When Trevor made no move to respond, Mike tugged his arm away again and stood.

"Okay. Fine," Mike said firmly, pushing away from the table. "I'm leaving."

"Don't walk away from me!" Trevor suddenly yelled at his back. "You can't leave."

Mike smiled and was all set on walking out of the bar until Trevor started shouting some shit about Harvey – how Harvey was probably just using Mike for sex, how he was just an empty suit, that he didn't care about Mike and he's only concern was for money – and Mike, already wound up, and still running on alcohol fumes found himself to be the one to throw the first punch.

Only his punch, probably due to the copious amount he'd drank, ended up somewhere other than Trevor's face. Trevor laughed, delighted at Mike's response, and threw him lazily away. The hard impact to his face was anything but lazy and he span away into something or someone soft. Whoever or whatever he'd crashed into instantly dropped their hold on whatever they had been carrying, glass shattering around them, in favour of cushioning their fall.

"Mike?" an urgent voice rushed against his ear worriedly as his eyes shut at the sudden vertigo that enveloped him. Sweet Jesus! Who else was out there?

When he opened his eyes he could swear that Harvey was staring back, but the face was different, younger, different eyes, different hair, different mouth.

"Nick?" he spluttered stupidly.

Nick's hands suddenly started to examine his mouth and Mike flinched backwards, wincing in pain. It was then that he was aware that Nick's fingertips were smeared with blood.

Huh. He's blood.

"Who the hell are you?" Nick asked, body going on the defensive, as his eyes shot past Mike to land on Trevor.

"Who the hell are you?" Trevor snarled back and then grinned, wiping blood (he's blood) on his pants. "Actually it doesn't matter. We're just leaving."

Trevor made to grab at Mike again who visibly flinched, inadvertently (because it really wasn't intentional) burrowing himself into Nick's chest.

"Over my dead body!" Nick declared rather heroically. He must have presumed Mike's burrowing was a request for Nick to save him, because an arm suddenly swung up around his shoulders and squeezed him to his chest tighter.

Somehow Nick managed to propel both of their downed bodies up of the floor in one swift movement that left Mike's head reeling and feeling vaguely impressed. Harvey never mentioned him being this agile before. He was practically a Ninja.

Nick's ninja skills seemed to have ended there though because suddenly both Trevor and Nick were struggling with each other. Mike made an attempt to push in between the two of them but he was pushed back, head connecting hard with the edge of the bar that sent him sliding back to the ground in a stunned daze.

He did manage to make out one small detail in his stunned daze though. The one-on-one battle seemed to have rapidly spiralled into a dozen-to-one, with Nick suddenly being smashed down on to a table full of what looked like full-on metal-head bikers.

Mike shook his head, trying to find clarity, and realised that Trevor was nowhere to be seen.

He did see something else though – something that will terrify him for the rest of his life (well, as long as Harvey didn't end it before then) – Nick struggling away from the table, a surprised grin on his face, just as one of the bigger biker dudes decided to smash a full glass right down on his head.

Oh, and the the pool ball that was inexplicably flying right at his own head.

xxx

Blood pooled in his eye.

He blinked it away to see that a man – in his forties and balding – dragging Nick away by the back of his shirt and waving a baseball bat around in the air in some vague threat to the group of men still lingering in violence. Despite the blood and throb to his own face he could see that this man had placed himself between Nick and his attackers, so he presumed he was more friend than foe.

Oh. God. He's got Nick killed.

The man must have promised something alarming because the bar files out just as quickly as the fight started.

Mike must have made some noise because the baseball bat was suddenly pointed in his direction, the man not releasing the hold of Nick's shirt, and snarled at him.

Mike froze in alarm.

"I thought I told everyone to scram."

"It's okay, Mo. He's with me," Nick's pained voice fluttered up from the floor.

Immediately both Mike and the man's attention snapped to Nick. There's a pool of blood on the floor – streaked from the middle of the room – and a mess of blood smeared down his face, dripping consistently. One eye had already started to close up.

"Jesus," Mo exclaimed, dropping the bat and falling to his knees by Nick's side.

"No. Just Nick," Nick joked, but Mike could still tell his voice was laced with pain.

"You'll be the death of me. You know that?" Mo said, a smile forming, gentle hands going to probe at his head. Mike stared at the scene forming. He now knew that Nick and this man knew each other quite well. Enough for this man to be affectionate with him.

"You know you couldn't run this bar without me. Right?" Nick grinned, wincing and pulling away from the probing fingers. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, right. You're five minutes into your shift before you get involved in a bar fight," he scoffed, ignoring Nick's obvious lie. "You're going to need stitches."

Nick waved him off.

"Nah! Some Tylenol will do."

Mo rolled his eyes and moved back on to his haunches.

"Okay, you're fine," he said in tone that belied the statement. He glanced over at Mike who still hadn't moved. "But your kid there isn't. He took a pool ball right to the head."

Despite bleeding profusely on the wooden floor and the obvious fact his coordination was shot, Nick managed to drag his beaten body over to him. He hardly responded at all when Harvey's brother fell to his knees in front of him.

"Mike?"

Nick shot a worried look at Mo before grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.

"Mike?"

Instead of acknowledging Nick's panic, he let out a startled gasp that immediately caused Nick to release his hold, hands reaching up to brace his face gently.

"What's wrong with him?" Nick asked worriedly, thumb rubbing over his cheek.

"Shock, maybe?" Mo supplied. He walked around the back of Nick and joined him on the floor. "It doesn't look he could fight himself out of a paper bag. Can't imagine he's been in many bar fights."

Nick snorted and Mike knew he should at least respond to that. He'd fought Trevor enough times.

"Or... you know, maybe the hit to the head did something," Mo continued, looking him over. "He needs a hospital."

"Yeah. Yeah he does," Nick agreed, squeezing his cheek again. "C'mon kid. Say something."

_Say something_

_Say anything_

Mike let out a shaky breath and felt a tear fall.

"I thought you were dead," he managed to breath out shakily.

Nick looked elated at the words.

"... And he lives..." he crowed triumphantly.

"You're bleeding," Mike commented, voice still bordering on hysterical. He tried to reach out to touch the still wet and dripping blood down the side of Nick's face. "Harvey's going to kill me."

He'd not only broken Harvey's trust, but he'd gone and injured his brother along with it.

"Hey, I'm fine," Nick reassured him, catching his hand in his own and tugging it down. He ignored the scoffing noise that erupted from the older man who still remained behind him. "You're bleeding too, kid."

Mike hadn't spent much time with Nick since he'd transformed from kiddie age – they'd met up for drinks a few times and he'd been witness, just the once, to the disappointment that had adorned his face when Harvey had told him he couldn't come to his exhibition – but Nick had always insisted on calling him 'kid' when they were near enough the same age.

"I am?" he asked stupidly.

Oh, yeah. He was bleeding in his eye. No, that wasn't right. He was bleeding into his eye. From a head wound. And a split lip to boot.

He tested his lip experimentally with a probing tongue, feeling fresh blood fall and leaving a copper taste in his mouth, which he grimaced at.

"Okay, that's settled," Nick said with a pained grin. "You're going to hospital."

No, Mike thought miserably. We're going to hospital.

Harvey really was going to kill him

xxx

_tbc_

**A/N2:** Phoenix – you're two H.B requests will now feature in the (real) finale.


	9. Chapter 9: Chapter 8 Part 2

**A/N**: Okay, First of all – I owe so many people so many apologies – most especially to Phoenix, who I feel I completely went off the grid. Please please forgive me. Trust me, everyone's encouraging reviews and PM's have meant a lot. I feel I must explain – There is a reason I've been a terrible person (and no, it's not because I kind of got side-swiped by a one Stiles Stilinski and his epic angsty relationship with his father, although it did help) - Life has been very much 'meh'. As soon as one thing settles down another thing starts. My dad was diagnosed with an aneurism to the heart which caused much distress all round (although my father seems to have taken it on the chin and is as cheery as ever) and my mother is due to have an operation next week for a cyst that is literally the size of my liver – and therefore quite alarming when it's actually in her _own _liver. Throw in 2 bouts of horrendous flu, one lost voice, a potential – although not confirmed – case of acute bronchitis and a Human Resources review for the fact that I had 2 bouts of flu, one lost voice and a potential, although not confirmed, case of acute bronchitis and a lecture on not having the flu jab and a SEVERE case of staff shortages that may or not have contributed to a) the aforementioned and B) my colleague and I being thrown around a bedroom like a rag-doll by an unwell and extremely violent patient. I spent one month (and by then it was more of the tip of the iceberg) barely mentally surviving the shit on the ward doing 14 hour shifts while bank and agency staff ran for the hills. I've managed to find some of my sanity again by escaping to the night shift (10 and half hours of relative calm on a good day). The only down side being is I tend to crash for days afterwards.

So, yeah that's my excuse. I could summarise and just say 'meh, didn't feel like writing', which was also very true. Phee, I'm epically sorry for not giving you more (I even owe you an epic review) and promised you a finale to rival all finales.

That being said – I've decided to extend the finale by another, third, part. So there will be part 3 in the near-future (but I can't promise when) partly because of penance and partly because the thought of writing again (and it is quite overwhelming to think how many wips I have started that I still WILL and WANT to complete) was a bit daunting that I thought I would make it into smaller chunks. 2 birds. One stone. At least, loyal readers and followers, you do get something. I hope it does you all justice and that I haven't lost too many readers along my extended absence.

Long apology is long. I love you all. I hope you still love me back.

**Disclaimer**: Standard disclaimers apply. No infringement intended.

**Part 2**

They're halfway through their quarterly evening meeting when he got the call. He'd spent at least the last twenty minutes doodling Louis as the devil, tail included, while Jessica droned on about the changes to the firm, who was moving where and some surprising budget cuts. He'd moved on to a new doodle, poodlelarising Louis lack of hair, when his phone chirped to life. Someone from Human Resources, trying to conceal their utter boredom with a hand over their yawn, freezes.

Jessica eyed him with a surprised look of her own

He remembered, back when Mike had first started working for him, how he had given the kid such a hard time for doing the exact same thing

"Answer it," Jessica told him, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. "Go take it over there."

"Thank you," he mouthed at her, pushing away from the table. He wondered if Donna had filled her in on his _'parental anxiety…'_ liked he'd dropped Mike off at his first day of kindergarten. It would definitely explain the reason why Donna had insisted on passing on a personal message for Jessica mere minutes before the meeting started. Didn't Jessica have her own PA for that?

He barely got a 'hello?' out as he stepped away from the conference table before, registering that yes it was Mike who was indeed calling, before a startled gasp and the tell-tell sound of tears assaulted him.

"Mike?"

"Har…" the kid stuttered, trying to catch his breath. "Harvey…?"

"What's wrong?" he asked, heart jumping. He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache forming against his temples, fighting the urge to tell Mike _"I told you so."_

"Oh god," Mike said, voice cracking. Harvey nearly dropped the phone because the kid sounded so absolutely terrified that he was positive something horrific had happened. "Harvey, I'm sorry… god, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. It's not my fault. Please, Harvey…"

"Whoa, kid…" Harvey tried to calm him, even has his own panic sky-rocketed. He could just about hear Jessica's voice, going on about the firm's new financial targets, over Mike's panicked crying in his ear. "Calm down. Start from the beginning."

"Um. Yeah-" he heard as a breath was sucked in. Harvey imagined Mike trembling, body tensing as he literally tried to suck back in his anxiety. "'Kay."

"Kid?" Harvey prompted. He heard a muffled moan and a small sob. "What happened? What's not your fault?"

He knew he was drawing attention himself. His own voice had risen slightly, he paced back and forth across the far end of the conference room floor, willing the obviously distressed younger man to speak. Jessica's words slowed down, voice uncertain, as her eyes tracked his movements.

"Harvey?" she questioned.

"There was so much blood," he heard instead, practically feeling all color bleed from his face. Unsure what to do or say, he threw Jessica a look of horror. Jessica's eyes widen in return. "He said he was okay and then he wasn't. They won't tell me anything 'cause I'm not family."

"What? Is it Mike?" Jessica whispered at him urgently. He couldn't hear what the kid was saying over the rush of blood in his own ears and waved her off angrily. Someone, from behind, inhaled sharply.

"Keller?" Louis asked still seated at the table, braving Harvey's anger.

"Mike? Just calm down, will you-"Harvey asked again, voice soothing and in sharp contrast to the scowl he was giving the junior partner. "Where's Keller."

"Not here," Mike answered quickly.

"What?" He asked, eyes crinkling in confusion.

"He's not here," Mike insisted. "He left before it happened."

"Mike, if you're not talking about Keller-" Harvey asked slowly. "Who are you talking about?"

Another tightly controlled breath was heard.

"Nick," Mike breathed out in a rush and Harvey felt his already wildly out of control heart drop a little further. "It's Nick, Harvey."

He must look like complete shit, losing enough time to realise he's somehow managed to find his way back to his seat, because Jessica has managed to gather his belongings and is thrusting it at him. He realises, a little belatedly, that she must have seen his extensive amount of doodling.

"It's Nick," Harvey said dully. "He said Nick's hurt."

Jessica looked at him with worry, squeezing his shoulder with her hand, offering his belongings again.

"And Mike?"

"I…" He stumbled to a stop, realising blankly that he didn't know. Mike hadn't kept the line open long enough for him to find out. "I don't know. He only said that Nick was hurt. He sounded out of it and wasn't making sense. All I know is-" he paused, feeling nausea stemming from the fear of the unknown. "- is that there was blood involved. Shit, I don't even know what hospital they've been taken to."

"Call him back," Jessica urged, the voice of reason.

He did, but it was answered by a man whom Harvey didn't know and instead of calm introductions and explanations, Harvey quivered with worry and asked with trepidation _'why do you have Mike's phone?' _only to have the man explain he'd given it to him when the nurse had taken him for an examination. The call only served his fear that his kid was hurt too. He at least managed to find out the location they were at.

"Mike's hurt too," he managed to say out loud. "I don't know how badly."

"Go," Jessica told him.

"What about Keller?" Louis asked again. In the last few weeks Louis had barely said anything to him since Keller jumped the Louis-shaped ship.

"I don't know and I don't get care," Harvey shouted with such vindication even Jessica jumped. He eyed Louis with anger-filled eyes and jabbed his finger over the table. "This is all your fault!"

"My fault?" Louis asked incredulous. "How did you figure that out? You're the one who-"

"Louis-" Jessica hissed at him and Louis immediately stopped, mouth snapping shut. "Now's not the time."

"I should go," Harvey said, grabbing at his brief-case and jacket and making a bee-line. "I need to flag down a taxi. My driver's at his kid's recital. He won't be available for another hour."

"Harvey-" he heard Jessica call as he snagged the handle of the conference room door. Turning he saw both Louis and Jessica on Louis side of the table whispering in what looked like a heated conversation. The balding man looked as defiant as ever until Jessica hissed his name again. Harvey narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Okay, okay. Fine," Louis conceded, raising his hands in the air. He stood up and pushed away from the table. "I have my own car this evening. I'll drive you," he told Harvey, eyes betraying the reluctance there.

He stopped by the door, waiting.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Louis said with sarcasm. "We can exchange insults on the way."

xxx

Harvey finds Mike sat huddled in the hallway, knee's drawn up, and head in his hands. All hope for a Mike relatively unharmed were dashed upon the sight of him. There was a large hematoma on his left temple, dried blood smeared down the side of his face. There was cut from just under his right eye that finished just before his ear, a splash of blood under it, but by the small amount of steri-strips that adorned it, it couldn't be too deep. There was already a dark bruise blossoming around his eye and a nasty looking split lip.

"Mike!"

"Dad!" Mike cried, untangling himself and launching at Harvey, in a flail of arms and legs. Harvey blinked, momentarily shocked by Mike's declaration. It had been way too long since he last heard himself being called that. "Harvey… oh god. I'm sorry, Harvey."

"Hey," he instantly tried to soothe. He swept his arms around him in a hug while still trying to lean back to get a closer look at Mike's injuries. By the way he had thrown himself at him the kid probably didn't have any rib injuries. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Mike continued to murmur into his jacket, head buried into his shoulder, and by the way his head bobbed Harvey wasn't entirely sure if he was shaking or nodding.

"He's fine," a voice announced from behind and Harvey only now realised that someone else was there with them. Harvey eyed the stranger – a balding, portly man in his late forties to fifties – over Mike's shoulder. "At least that's what the doc said anyways."

Mike chose this moment to extricate himself from Harvey and nod more clearly.

"I'm fine," he reassured Harvey, but the remains of tears in his eyes still made Harvey's heart painfully squeeze. "I have a concussion. They said I was lucky, but Nick…"

"Go on…" Harvey encouraged, still confused how his brother had become involved in Mike's disastrous playdate.

Mike audibly gulped and waved his hand in distress. He rubbed at his mouth, something Harvey hadn't seen Mike do since he was a kid, unable to get the words out.

"Hey, it's okay," Harvey encouraged, snagging the hand and tugging it away from his mouth. He looked around nervously, realising the man was still looking at them. He was still wary, not knowing how he was connected to either Mike or Nick.

"Nick explained Mike's situation," the man said, giving a little shrug. "So don't worry."

Okay, so the man knew Nick, who wasn't there. And Mike was having a freak out about it.

"Nick? Where is he," Harvey asked, ignoring the fact that Mike instantly went rigid and buried himself back into Harvey's shoulder. The kid was clearly having some kind of emotional relapse.

"They sent him for some tests," the guy told him, face looking more pained, a flare of anger to his rounded cheeks. "To check his head. He got glassed. Thrown around quite a bit."

Harvey blanched. He felt his knees wobble and weaken and if it wasn't for Mike's solid and rigid form pressed against him, he was sure he would have slid to the floor.

"Right," he said a little bit too methodically. "Mike said something about him being all right and then he wasn'_t_?…"

"Yeah," the man said with a nod. He was clearly tense, hand flexing before coming up to rub at his balding patch. "Well, he was beat as hell, but conscious, you know? Desperate to check on the kid, but as soon as he stood up he just completely crashed and was out for the count until the EMT's turned up. Your boy completely lost it. He thought he'd got Nick killed."

Harvey could just imagine it, remembering how Donna had described Mike's reaction when Harvey had been unconscious after being struck by a cyclist and his regression that followed, and nodded at the man. He squeezed Mike a little closer to him.

"Of course, Nick's okay-" the guy nodded back, throwing a lazy fleeting grin at him. "Came round typical Nick style, asking if he was still a hit with the ladies. That kid's a right pain in my butt, you know?"

Harvey found himself grinning at the man who appeared to be genuinely both exasperated and having a fond-affection for his wayward younger brother.

"I'm sorry," He said, reaching around Mike and offering his hand, now extremely intrigued by the man's identity and connection with Nick. "I'm Harvey… and you are?"

"This is Mo," Mike said, pushing away from Harvey again and gesturing to the man, allowing them to shake hands. "He's Nick's boss."

"Partner," a voice suddenly says to their right, Nick suddenly appearing from around the corner. His face brightened, in sharp contrast to the mottled marks scattered over his face, one side completely covered in blood. "Harvey!"

"Nick!" Mike exclaimed, utter joy and relief present in his voice. He pulled away from Harvey and dashed to his brother in such a way that Harvey longed for a time when Mike was still a toddler. "Thank goodness. I thought you were dead."

"Hey, munchkin," Nick muttered even though they were both near enough the same age. He was obviously in pain, wincing as Mike practically threw his spindly arms around him. "Watch the merchandise."

"Mike," Harvey called, in warning. He walked the few steps towards them and gently pulled Mike away. "Nick's hurt."

"Sorry," Mike said, quickly pulling away as though he had burned him.

"S'ok," Nick said, wincing slightly as he tried to straighten, causing Harvey to inwardly wince with him. "Had worse."

Harvey rounded on Nick, studying him – clearly out of the two, Nick had got the worse of it – and reached out a hand to touch a part of his face that wasn't covered with an immense amount of bandages. Nick flinched but didn't pull away. "What happened?" he hissed angrily. "Who did this to you?"

"Don't ask me," Nick huffed at him, pulling away and attempting a painful shrug. "Guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Mike?" Harvey asked, not taking his eyes off his wounded brother. "Was Keller involved?"

"Now would be a good time to start talking, Mikey-" Nick encouraged, staring back. "He's got that weird pulse thing in the middle of his forehead again."

"No, Harvey – I swear it wasn't him. He left," Mike insisted, invading the space between them.

"See, right there – " Harvey exclaimed, angry all over again.

"I wouldn't go with him," Mike interrupted him, voice insistent and sincere "I'm sorry, okay? I was pissed at you and refused to go with him."

Harvey shook his head in confusion.

"So if Keller left, who…"

"I might have been a little drunk-" Mike admitted.

Mo snorted causing both of them to look up.

"I'm going to have a word with the bartender," Mo apologised to Harvey. "He should have cut him off."

Harvey nodded and then gestured for Mike to continue.

"… and Trevor turned up," Mike said in a barely there whisper. Behind him, Harvey could see Nick had retreated to the safety of the wall, hand bracing his side, eyes shut.

"Trevor?" Harvey asked in surprise, torn between checking on his brother and railing on Mike. "Trevor who's supposed to be in Montona?"

"There's only one, right?" Mike attempted to joke but ended up looking away when he chanced a look at Harvey's unamused face. "I was as surprised as you are," the younger man insisted. "I swear I didn't know."

"So what happened?" Harvey asked, folding his arms.

"We had a fight."

"A fight?" Harvey asked, raising his eyebrows.

"An argument, really-" Mike quickly corrected, eyes stormy. "He was talking trash. About me and you and I… maybe… kind of threw a punch."

"- and missed," Nick offered from his spot against the wall. "Got an upper-cut right to his face instead. Went down like a sack of spuds."

"Thanks Nick," Mike said, rolling his eyes. "Way to big me up."

"You're welcome," Nick cracked an eye open and grinned painfully. "Still glad I'm alive?"

"Trevor did all of this?" Harvey asked in bewilderment, hand gesturing between Mike and his brother, ignoring Nick's completely inappropriate comment.

"I… I don't know," Mike answered, appearing blank. "I don't even know where he went. All I know is that the bar just went completely crazy."

Nick shrugged. "You should see it on ladies night."

"I think he ran as soon as the place kicked off," Mo answered for them. "Most of Nick's damage came from a bunch of biker's."

"Seriously Mo," Nick exclaimed with a half-cocked grin and a tut. "The riff-raff you're letting in lately."

"My sentiments exactly," Mo eyed Nick back.

"I thought you were partners," Mike said in confusion.

Mo grinned and pointed at Nick. "Nick? Are we partners?"

"Eh, semantics."

Harvey was interrupted to the on-going debate that included Nick telling a confused Mike _'I've heard it both ways'_ by his phone going off. By the grave look on his face and hearing a one-sided conversation, Mike obviously had realised something was up.

"Harvey?"

"That was Louis. He's gone back to work. Keller's threatening to leave."

Mike dropped down onto an available chair. He didn't look particularly surprised, mortified and defeated yes, but not surprised.

"Shit, Harvey. I'm Sorry," Mike told him, face full of shame. "What does this mean for us."

"Well, I'm pretty sure there's no 'us' anymore," he said, pocketing his phone. At Mike's horrified look he immediately clarified himself. "I mean there's no more 'me, you and Keller'. Louis is going on the defensive. It's all damage control now. Which is strange." he snorted. " Normally it's the other way around."

"I'm sorry," Mike muttered, voice muffled as he buried his face into his hands.

Harvey didn't reassure or comfort Mike's misery this time. By his own reasoning Mike was at least half responsible for the events that had occurred tonight – he had completely disregarded his rules, got drunk and let himself be provoked into a fight that he clearly was incapable of finishing (a little harsh maybe, but Harvey made a mental note to take the kid to gym for some boxing lessons, and by the state of his brother's face, Nick too) – and one hundred per cent the reason that Keller was walking.

In fact he was seething, but was saved from chewing the kid out by Mo bringing his attention back to Nick again.

"You look like shit," Mo said, folding his arms as he scrutinised him. "Are you sure they cleared you."

"I discharged myself."

Harvey shot out of his seat, causing Mike to jump in surprise.

"Nick!" Mo admonished with a fierce disapproval, pinning him with angry eyes. "Seriously, you're going to be the death of me."

"And then I get the bar, right?" Nick asked with an airy cheerfulness and a wink.

Mo scowled at him in return.

"Nicholas!" Harvey snapped at him in anger.

Mike peeked at them from through his fingers

Nick stared back in defiance.

"I'm fine Harvey," Nick told him, unflinching from his stance against the wall, although Harvey figured that was more to do with not being able to move without the support of it than any bold gesture. "No bleeding on the brain. No swelling. Just a few broken ribs and a bad concussion."

"You could be like one of _those_ people," Mike offered, eyes wide and imploring. "You know, the ones are who all heroic and save everyone and then bam!" Mike slammed his hand down on the chair causing Harvey to jump – although he'd never admit it – and Nick to roll his eyes. "They drop dead."

"This isn't a day-time soap opera," Nick groused at them.

"You need to make sure," Mike implored of him, looking up with those watery eyes again.

"I'm fine, Mikey," Nick reassured him with a grin that ended up being aborted due to the sharp inhale of pain that followed. "Seriously, don't worry."

"Have you forgotten I have an eidetic memory? I know _exactly_ what _could_ happen," Mike told him with a serious look. "Do you want to traumatise me for the rest of my life?

"You're getting yourself checked out," Harvey told him firmly, pointing at him while looking around to see what doctor or nurse he could grab hold of.

"Past tense, Harvey," Nick said with a roll of the eyes. "I _discharged _myself, remember? And there's nothing you can do about it."

Harvey just smiled in response and patted his shoulder in such way that no one could mistake it for anything other than patronisation.

"You tell yourself that, Nicky."

Glaring at both his idiot brother and his insolent but adorable non-adopted fake son he snapped his fingers at them. "Stay here," he told them with his most angry and 'don't argue with me' voice he could muster (and with how he was feeling right at this moment it wasn't too much of an effort). "Both of you."

As he rounded the corner and beared down on an unsuspecting nurse, he heard Mo utter another thinly veiled exasperation, lingering in fondness. "Sit down," he heard, satisfied he had someone on his side, for once, when it came to his sibling. "Before you fall down."

_TBC_

**A/N**:2 So, there will be a part 3. Involving nightmares, tears, some Nick-woobie-loving and Harvey getting down the _real _reason that Mike's been such a brat of recent. You'll have to see what happens in regard to the pull-ups, but I don't think I will put him in a pair. I just can't do it. But they will make an appearance.

And, just a shout out really – Mike's insistence on Nick being checked out is all inspired by a particular character from Neighbours and that 'explosive' episode from last week. I won't name names in case anyone is yet to watch it. RIP. Lesson learned, people. No one is invincible.

Phoenix: You gave me two HB requests that I promised to fill. For the life of me I can't remember what they were * ducks an errant thrown shoe * and can't find them in my old pm's. Be a dear and remind me * blows kisses *

Announcement: I was going to save this for the final part but as I've been a complete fart to you all I've decided to give it to you early. Phoenix is aware of this as we have discussed it before, but for all not in the know, I am planning a follow on to Phee's Lesson's, focusing on Nick (working title is **'The Continuing Adventures ****of a**** One Nicholas Specter**). These will be multi-chaptered one-shots in the same vein as Lessons and Crayon's and be set around mini!mike age instead of the teen-years. I have two (maybe 3 – although I'm really not sure how to work the third one yet) planned, but what I wanted, and if you're all interested that is – is for some prompts from you guys. E.g. anything you want to see in regards to Nick. Also if you've got any better ideas for a title, I'm all ears. Just pm me on here if you have any suggestions.

xxx :)


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